Angel of the Twilight
by B.Grunty
Summary: Loosely based on a fic that I had here a while back. Ryoko PoV after prologue. Strange occurances are happening in The World again. A minor player in stopping the first incident quickly becomes immersed in new happenings. New Chapter!
1. Prologue

Greetings everyone. This is a complete rework of a fiction that I had started here about a year ago, but I took it down because I was not satisfied with the direction that it was heading. Playing G.U reminded me of my desire to rework the fiction and thus here it is. Reading this, keep this in mind: This is not just a retelling of the .hack//Infection series. I have a number of ideas in mind that I think will make the story interesting and unique.

Disclaimer:

I do not own the .hack series or the official characters associated with it. This storyline and any original characters that are a creation of my mind however are my own with the rights associated with them.

Prologue

Omega: Hidden Darkside Holy Ground

A party of three gates into the area. One is a level 90 blademaster. His body is covered in red armor adorned with dragon scales. His long white hair was blowing in the breeze of the field. His blue eyes survey the dark elemental areas wasteland as he waited for the rest of his party...he twirled the silver broadsword in his hand The next to appear was a shorter level 87 wavemaster. His face was covered in blue runes that glow slightly in the dimly lit field. He wore a blue robe that had gold bordering which gave it a bit of a regal appearance. In his hands was a golden decorated staff that had a blue crystal on the end. The crystal was covered in blue fire that burned perpetually. The two waited for the last to finish loading.

The wavemaster was the first to break the silence.

"So why are we here again Amoroth?"

"I heard this was an unusual dungeon, maybe there is a rare item here. Why, are you scared Andres?"

"Why would I be scared of binary code?"

"I don't know, just isn't like you to question a challenge."

"Well this area is eight levels above your level."

"So what...that's what makes it fun."

The third member finished loading in; it was a level 85 long arm. His attire appeared to be that of a monk more so than a spearman. He wore gray padded armor over his entire body. His hair was a short light tan and his eyes green. The hair was a relatively short spike styled. On his face golden markings can be seen against his slightly more tanned skin indicating that his character favored the thunder element. His spear was a black pole with a moderate sized gold blade on the end of it. One side is an edge and the other side is serrated. He twirled the spear in his hand as he walked a few steps forward surveying the area.

"A level 98 area and our highest member are 90...why do I have a bad feeling about this..."

"Renz, you and I have Phal Repth and enough SP items to chain it, this game is easy mode once you get Phal Repth."

Renz shrugs when he starts to look in attention. Out of the corner of his eye he sees an Astro King approaching quickly.

"Incoming!" Renz shouted as he charged forward and leapt into the air towards it. The Astro King began casting a spell.

"Reckless..." Andres sighed as he began running to the Astro King. Amoroth shrugged and followed the two. Shortly after Renz goes flying towards him backwards engulfed in fire after the Astro King finished casting Vulcan Pha. Amoroth sticks his hand out and catches Renz dropping him on the ground casually.

"This is why you don't charge level 98 monsters recklessly." Amoroth laughed. Andres had finished casting GiRue Rom as the beast became engulfed in a frozen tornado. Amoroth runs up to the frozen Astro King, leaps up to the beast's side, and jams the blade through the ice and into the beast falling with the blade cutting a wide gash into the beast."

"GiRai Don" Andres yelled as his staff glows and gathers energy. A second later the energy flies into the sky causing a large lightning bolt to crash into the beast. Renz leaps up into the air, throws his spear into the lightning charging it with energy, grabs the spear a second later when the lightning from Andres' spell fades, and falls straight down with the spear thrust forward jamming the spear into the Astro King. When the spear goes into the beast, the energy is released causing a small explosion which blows some of the creature's flesh straight off.

The Astro King in a rage goes berserk and lashes it's tentacles out furiously. Amoroth parries a blow but Andres is stricken as he gets knocked back a few feet. Renz thrusts his spear into the beast again and holds onto it as the beast tries to throw him off. Renz sticks one of his hands out and begins gathering his own energy.

"Don't tell me he is going to do that idiotic stunt..." Andres sighed.

"Yup...it looks so..." Amoroth says while rolling his eyes.

"What a showoff...if it weren't for us he would get killed fifty times a day...especially now that player killing has been put back in." Andres responds.

"I was thinking more of a hundred..." Amoroth laughs as he walks back from the Astro King.

Back on the Astro King Renz finishes casting. He yells out as a yellow arcane circle appears in the air.

"Lanceor!"

The spirit of thunder appears above the circle and releases a violent blast of lightning at Renz. Renz quickly raises his spear above him to act as a lightning rod, and thrusts it downwards again into the Astro King causing a large explosion of electricity which is immediately followed by the rest of the lightning from Lanceor electrocuting the beast from the inside out. The Astro King turns gray and disappears as Renz goes flying back from the excess of lightning energy. He lands on the ground with his character nearly dead.

"That was totally unnecessary you idiot..." Andres sneers.

"Give it a rest Andres..." Renz said as he stands up casting Pha Repth on himself.

"You know, if you used Lanceor on the Astro King directly it still would have died probably." Amoroth states.

"Yeah, but it looks cooler like that..."

"...Would you at least get off your butt and find a piece of mage gear to swap out that has a higher level Lanceor on it? I mean using the first level Lanceor spell kind of makes you look bad at level 85." Andres sighed as he begins to walk towards the dungeon entrance.

"Nag, nag, nag...I swear sometimes you act more like my mother than my best friend..." Renz says following Andres. Andres turns around and swats Renz in the head with his staff.

"Baka..." Andres says continuing on. Amoroth merely follows the two laughing. The three arrive at the entrance to the dungeon: a decayed head with fingers coming out of the ground wiggling in the air eerily. Upon seeing this, Andres sighed.

"I hate these dungeons..."

"Mm...meaty..." Renz quickly remarked.

"Come on you two" Amoroth said entering the dungeon. Andres and Renz soon followed.

Two hours later...

Renz, Amoroth, and Andres approach the room with the Gott statue inside of it.

"Man...who has ever heard of a 15 floor dungeon...?" Renz says walking with his arms behind his head

"I thought we were toast against that House Golem just now..." Amoroth remarks.

Andres rolls his eyes.

"Well if SOMEONE would stop acting like a clown..." Andres says turning to Renz...but Renz is back about twenty feet looking at the passageway they just came out of. "Uhh...what's going on?"

"I'll be right back...I thought I saw something." Renz says running to the doorway they just came out of. He goes back down the hallway and prepares to turn around a corner when he sees something fly by at a very high speed. Renz jumps back as a reaction.

"What the hell...it looks like that thing from that time before..." Renz thinks to himself.

"Renz! Hurry up!" Andres yells.

"Fine, fine..." Renz sighs trying to put what he saw out of his mind. He runs through the meaty hall back into the room where Andres and Amoroth are.

"Let's see what we have earned ourselves..." Amoroth says going into the Gott room. Andres and Renz follow. Amoroth bends over and tries to open the chest but it refuses to open.

"Well...that's odd...I've never seen a locked chest before."

"What are you...back off let me blast it..." Andres says as he gathers energy in his staff. "GiRueVak Kruz!"

A large explosion of blue fire explodes engulfing the chest. When it clears, the chest is unaffected. Andres has an agitated look on his face.

"Well that didn't work..." Amoroth said. Renz walks up to the chest.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this...?" Renz thinks to himself. Renz kneels down and touches the chest when it opens itself. An intense green glow is seen coming out of the chest as Renz reaches into it and pulls out a small exotic looking stone. Renz looks at it as something pops up in his user interface.

"Item Acquired: Twilight Keystone"

Amoroth and Andres go over to Renz.

"That's it? An emerald?" Andres says disappointed.

"Maybe it's part of an event." Amoroth says while shrugging, "In any case, let's get out of here...since the chest opened for Renz, he should keep it."

Andres nods pulling a sprite ocarina out. He brings it to his lips and begins to play a tone but nothing happens.

"What the..."

The screen flickers.

Renz looks up from the stone.

"What's going on?"

Andres tries to use the ocarina again, but nothing happens.

"The sprite ocarina isn't working...

"Guess we're walking out..." Amoroth sighs as he walks towards the doorway...just as Amoroth reaches the doorway a force sends him flying back.

"Amoroth...are you ok?" Andres says. He begins to look rather nervously around.

"We're not alone..." Renz says pulling his spear forward.

"Player killers?" Amoroth says getting up and drawing his blade.

"...I don't know..." Renz says. The screen begins to flicker more and more until it is a constant stream of static.

"Is it just me, or is there a lot of fuzz in this area..." Andres says rotating around with his staff forward.

"No...I see it too..." Amoroth says while slowly walking towards the doorway again. The screen suddenly becomes nothing but static and then goes black briefly. Amoroth, Andres, and Renz soon find themselves in a different area. It is not a dungeon, nor a normal field...but rather an area about half the size of a field. The ground is brown and barren while various masses of land and ruined structures float in the air. The sky is a mass of various swirling colors...green to black to red and so on. Lightning can be seen piercing the sky.

"What in the..." Amoroth says looking around shocked.

Andres looks around warily expecting something.

"Is this some new event??"

Renz stands in the middle of the area looking at the sky.

"...I've been here before...there is an incredibly strong monster here...and you can't gate out. You either have to kill it, die and reload, or hard reset...I think."

"You think?" Amoroth says looking at Renz.

"...Well I am guessing...I ended up using a hard reset...I partied here with Kylia a few months ago...Kylia died and I hard reset because I knew I would die anyway. besides I was being called away to do something and didn't want to hassle with the log out procedure."

"Lazy bastard...honor is greater than laziness..." Andres halfway sneered, halfway laughed.

"It's just a game." Renz said shrugging. "Besides, I was like level 35 back then...we'll probably crush it if it shows up here."

Amoroth nodded then walks towards Renz.

"Whatever happened to Kylia anyway...I haven't seen her in forever."

Renz shrugged.

"Well she said she was starting college, I figured she quit the game...though I do think it was a bit weird that she didn't email me goodbye or even log back in after dying to that monster. I guess that's what happens with people online..."

"Then she was stuck-up then..." Andres laughed.

Renz turns to Andres and gives him a look of death.

"Well at least now you actually party with us, when you were hanging out with Kylia you always went to fields with her. Man you were so whipped..."

Renz turns to Andres with a bemused look on his face.

"I should PK you where you stand..."

"Try it and I'll send you on the blue flame expressway to hell."

Amoroth takes a combat stance.

"Something is appearing; get your act together you slackers!"

Renz and Andres turn to attention. The area began to flash and flicker as a mass of zeroes and ones appear in the air and begin to manifest. A humanoid figure begins to appear. Its legs are long pillars of stone that levitate underneath a torso of similar material. The torso has an eye with a yin-yang in the center and sticks out a fair deal. The arms of the beast are a system of three stone pieces. On each arm a round piece longer horizontally than vertical functions as a shoulder with another slightly smaller stone functioning as the upper arm. The forearms of the monster are relatively well formed with a symbol similar to that of the chest on each one. The hands are directly attached to the forearm and in its right hand it holds a long red staff. The end of the staff is a circle and within that symbol the main of the staff intersects with a horizontally running piece forming a cross in the circle. Attached to the torso is medium sized stone to function as the head. There are three holes in the head that glow red to function as eyes. Coming out of the sides of the head is a large ring giving the appearance of horns. When the thing finishes forming it seems to stretch itself out extending its levitating limbs out producing a rather creepy visage.

"I have never seen a monster like that before...it has to be a special event!" Andres said beginning to gather energy for a spell.

"Interesting...well let's destroy it." Amoroth says running towards it. Renz looks at the monster with a slightly shocked look on his face.

"It's the exact same as before..." Renz thinks to himself. "Well this time it's going down."

Renz begins to head towards the monster but the beast takes the pre-emptive and charges Renz bypassing Amoroth and Andres smashing him with his staff. Being caught so abruptly off guard, Renz goes flying a few feet back and is knocked down.

"Ugh...fast..." Renz says getting up.

"GiRueVak Kruz" Andres says causing the beast to explode in blue fire. Amoroth leaps behind it and tries to jam his blade into it but the beast's thick shell doesn't give way causing the thrust to slide off the monster. It turns around grabbing Amoroth with it's free hand and throws him across the field. The beast keeps its hand outstretched gathering blue energy and releases a bolt of ice at Amoroth. When the bolt hits Amoroth it explodes into a mass of ice freezing him temporarily in a cage of ice.

"No effect?!" Andres yells. He turns to Amoroth and begins casting Pha Repth when the monster appears behind him and smashes him with its staff. Andres flies clear across the field having no heavy armor to weigh him down. Renz leaps through the air and thrusts the blade into the back of the monster full force. The spear point barely even pokes into the monster causing minimal damage.

"What the...it's the same as before!" Renz yells grabbing his spear at the bottom and swinging it like an axe to try to knock the beast back. The monster holds it's free forearm up blocking the spear and then thrusting forward with the staff causing heavy damage. Renz's character becomes paralyzed as the monster approaches for another attack. Renz soon finds himself covered in blue light as Andres casts Pha Repth and then begins casting another spell. The monster turns to Andres and begins to rush it when Amoroth finally free of the ice charges the monster with his blade enflamed.

"GiVak Cutter!" Amoroth yells as he reaches the monster and begins to perform a cross slash into the beast. On the second strike an explosion occurs which forces the creature back but it doesn't look very damaged visibly. Agitated, the beast turns to Amoroth and hits him heavily three times which causes a blue shell to appear around Amoroth and then shatter.

"What the...what kind of effect is this..." Amoroth says as he raises his blade to swing at the monster again. Renz flies through the air and thrusts forward as the monster but is swatted away when he gets in range as if the monster knew what was going to happen. The monster quickly casts a spell causing paralysis to all three of the players.

"Damn it...not this again" Andres says agitated.

The monster throws its staff at Amoroth and then raises the staff in the air with Amoroth attached to it.

"What the...I've never seen an attack like this..." Amoroth says.

"It's the same attack it used to take out Kylia..." Renz thinks...he then yells to Amoroth. "Try to break free! It's an instant death attack!"

"I...can't!" Amoroth yells.

The monster sticks its hand out and several blue and green rings of long polygons appear around it. They begin to expand and then point outward while energy gathers in the center of the ring.

"Amoroth!" Andres yells as he tries to move his character despite the paralysis. Renz frantically issues commands to his character but they do not occur.

"...Looks like this is it..." Amoroth sighed. "I'll see you guys at the root town..."

The energy finishes gathering and a red polygon circle appears surrounding the entire complex of polygons that have already formed. A flash of light occurs and a barrage of tendrils fly out of the ring. The tendrils are made of various colors of zeroes and ones. They quickly close the gap between the beast and Amoroth and converge into Amoroth's chest. Amoroth lets out an inhuman scream as his character shatters into data which is absorbed by the tendrils. The tendrils retract into the monster's hand and the polygons disappear. The paralysis wears off.

"Great...we are a man down now..." Andres said gritting his teeth. Renz runs at the beast, vaults off the ground with his spear and flies through the air somersaulting slamming into the beast with his spear vertically and downwards when he is in range. The monster parries this with its staff and they are in gridlock temporarily while Andres gathers all of his energy into a spell.

"Merrows Pha!"

A blue arcane circle appears in the sky as the spirit of water manifests. It aims its head at the monster and releases a massive wave of ice engulfing the monster. Renz jumps back as the beast becomes frozen in ice.

"Hah...level four summons for the win..." Andres laughs.

"Not bad..." Renz says looking at the glacier encasing the monster.

The ice does not last long however. The monster emits a bright flash of energy and shatters the ice around it. Enraged, it charges Andres and crashes into him. As Andres is knocked off balance, the beast smashes Andres with its staff causing a blue shell to appear around him and then shatter. The beast then throws the staff behind Andres and it floats into the air carrying Andres with it.

"What the...ahh damn it!" Andres yells. Renz runs towards Andres and tries to pull him down from the staff, but as the staff begins to turn exposing Andres' side rather than his body, Renz is blasted back by a bolt of blue energy. The beast forms the rings of polygons again. A few moments later the tendrils fly at Andres.

"Screw this! I've got better things to do than get beaten by some monster..." Andres yells as the quickly jerks the visor off. Just as he does this, the tendrils pierce into his character's right arm and Andres' real player feels an intense pain in reality. With his left arm he pulls the cord out of the wall to his PC. Back in the game Andres' character blinks out as the connection cancels. The tendrils disappear and the monster turns to focus on Renz.

"Coward...and he was preaching to me about honor...it's just a damn game, what's the worst that can happen?" Renz says as he charges the monster and begins to attack relentlessly.

"I may lose, but I will give it my all and kill you if luck allows it!" Renz yells as he throws his spear full force into the monster's chest and then casts Lanceor. The spirit of thunder appears out of an arcane circle and unleashes violent lightning at the spear. The beast is electrocuted briefly but grabs the spear out of his chest immediately regenerating. It looks at the spear briefly and shortly after shatters it with its bare hand.

"Damn it all...now I need to get a new weapon" Renz says as he begins to cast another spell but the monster doesn't allow it. It charges Renz and smashes him with its staff sending him flying vertically smashing into one of the floating pieces of debris. Renz lands on the ground shortly nearly depleted of HP totally.

"What kind of monster...wait...that thing I found in the chest..."

Renz stands up and pulls out the Twilight Keystone. He holds it up trying to use it. It glows briefly but then does nothing else.

"Great...useless." Renz sighed putting the gem back into his inventory. The monster begins to float towards Renz. Renz seeing this sighs and runs up to the beast, leaps up, somersaults in mid-air, and tries to kick the beast with his feet downwards as he rotates. The beast merely moves backwards evading it and strikes Renz with its staff. The shell appears around him and then shatters. The beast throws its staff at Renz and holds its hand out as it forms the ring of polygons.

"Well, looks like we lose this event." Renz says looking at the imminent attack. The attack finishes charging and the tendrils fly at Renz. The beams hit his chest and Renz's player feels an intense pain in real life briefly, but a bright flash appears causing the pain to subside. The entire area freezes as the staff's effect wears off and Renz falls to the ground. His character has a number of holes in the data as patches of light can be seen all over where the polygons forming the character have disappeared.

"What happened...what was that pain...?" Renz says looking around. "That thing...is frozen? Did the administration stop it?"

A flash of light happens behind Renz. Renz slowly turns around to see a mysterious woman in a prismatic flowing robe behind him. Her blue eyes stare deeply at Renz seemingly gazing into his soul. Her flowing white hair makes her appearance as mysterious as it does beautiful. Renz faces the woman.

"Hi...did you do this? You must be a powerful wavemaster if you are able to cast a spell like that..."

The woman merely smiles a little and extends her hand to Renz.

"Come with me...there is much you need to know...and so little time...you cannot defeat Skeith in your current state or power..."

"Skeith? Is that what that thing is?"

The woman nods her head.

"There is no time...come with me. My power can only last but for so long...if that thing destroys you, all hope will be lost."

"Then let's kill it while it's frozen..."

"It's not that simple...there are many things that you need to know...and you must make a decision that will change that path that you take in this world...and possibly the world itself"

"This event NPC is starting to creep me out..." Renz thinks to himself. "Why am I thinking like this, it is just a game?"

The woman stands there waiting for Renz to respond. Renz walks to the woman and takes her outstretched hand.

"I will go with you...but tell me...who are you?"

The woman appears a little surprised at first but then closes her eyes and smiles gently.

"I...my name...it is Aura...thank you for choosing to come with me...let us leave quickly before Skeith reawakens"

"Aura...wait...haven't I heard rumors about a character named Aura..." Renz thinks to himself.

As Renz completes that thought, Aura glows brightly and the two disappear. The freeze effect wears off leaving Skeith alone in the field. It levitates momentarily as its data updates. It then fades away back to where it came from.

Don't forget to read Chapter 1 as well! Any constructive criticism is appreciated. Any mindless flaming is not so please do not waste your time.


	2. Encounter

Chapter One: Encounter

Delta Server Root Town: Mac Anu

It has been ten months since the happenings of the first coming of the twilight. The .hackers that took part in the final fight have moved on and returned to their normal behaviors both in The World and out.

The water city is as vibrant as it ever was. The city is a bustling center of activity as thousands of players carry out various activities. Some are engaging in trading. Others are engaged in crafting activities. Still others are merely socializing. At the Chaos Gate a young woman appears in a column of yellow light. She is a blonde haired woman of small build wearing a white elegant dress. From behind, a pair of moderately sized angel wings can be seen coming out of her back. Her blue eyes stare out into the town seemingly lost in the vastness of what was happening. On her forehead a small tiara with a red stone in it can be seen. Above her head, a small gold halo floats. Her forearms are covered in gauntlets that match her dress but her fingers are not covered and are exposed. In her hand she carries a massive axe nearly the size of her own body. As she looks around, she has a gentle and peaceful smile on her lips. She hums to herself as she walks towards the main part of Mac Anu.

"I wonder what will happen today..." She thinks to herself. As she enters the main square, she looks around for anybody that she recognizes. As she looks around she hears a familiar voice call out to her.

"Ryoko! Terajima Ryoko!"

Curious, Ryoko turns to the direction of the voice. She sees a male blademaster approach. He is wearing silver plated mail. His white hair coming straight down over his shoulders as large angel wings come out of his back. Unlike Ryoko's though, they look more like a cloak than functioning wings. The blademaster's arms and legs are covered in blue armor. It's Balmung of the Azure Sky.

"Oh, hi Balmung!" Ryoko shouts towards him as she walks towards him. "What's up?"

"I thought that I would go leveling to try to regain what I lost while Kite, Orca, and I were wiping out the data bugs. Would you like to come train as well?"

Ryoko smiled looking at Balmung. She hadn't been leveling in a long time. Ever since the events ten months ago, she began to explore lower level fields and help the lowbies that she saw who needed it. Her level was still only 44, most of which she achieved while leveling with the other associates of Kite when he was busy on his quest.

"Sure! Hey Balmung…what is a data bug again?" Ryoko says a little confused.

Balmung sighed to himself.

"You don't remember? Kite killed many of them during the events that happened ten months ago."

"Not really…Kite never invited me that often…in fact I think he invited me only when I asked him to come to a field with me. I haven't seen him around lately, have you?"

Balmung folds his arms over his chest thinking for a moment.

"Kite has been busy with school lately. Orca too. As for data bugs, it's kind of hard to explain, but I wouldn't worry about them anymore, Kite, Orca, and I destroyed them all. Unfortunately, they had the power to drain levels from us among other things…I went from level 85 down to level 50 in the process of hunting them…and it is only now that I have time to start training my character again. I am kind of excited actually, especially now that they have raised the maximum level to 140."

"If you say so Balmung…so where are we going?" Ryoko says with her arms behind her back leaning forward a little bit in her curiosity.

"Well, we need to invite one other. Let me see who is available."

Balmung closes his eyes and points his head downwards slightly as he looks at his member address list. Ryoko looks around while Balmung is doing this. She watches a group of players dancing in the square rather oddly. A few seconds later he turns to Ryoko.

"Okay. Mistral is coming."

"Great! I haven't seen her in a while either. I'll be back in a moment!" Ryoko says as she begins running towards a nearby item shop.

Balmung simply stands there with a bemused look on his face.

"Attack of the high pitched voices…" Balmung sighs to himself. "I better turn the volume down before it gets too busy."

Mistral appears rather quickly. She runs towards Balmung in her blue and white robes with her red hair flowing behind her.

"Hello Balmung!" Mistral says. The pitch of her voice makes Balmung cringe slightly. "Let's go!"

"Greetings Mistral…we will leave shortly."

"Okay! So what field are we going to? Will there be rare items?"

"Hm, Lambda server seems to be a good server considering the level range…"

"Well I am 47…you're 50…who else is going?"

"Terajima Ryoko"

Mistral frowns slightly.

"I see…what level?"

"44…"

"Oh well, we'll still do okay I guess." Mistral says while swinging her staff around with her wrist. "Where is she?"

Balmung points at the item shop that Ryoko went into.

"Oh no…why did she go to that shop?!" Mistral exclaims.

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Balmung replies perplexed.

"That item shop is one of the worst! It's run by that Black Star guild!"

"The PK guild?"

"Yeah. The poor girl will get ripped off. Let's go before she gets swindled out of everything!"

By the time Mistral finished her statement, Balmung was already walking towards the Black Star guild shop. Mistral runs behind Balmung to catch up.

Inside the Black Star guild shop.

A rather fat heavy blade is behind the counter. He wears a loose fitting getup of black clothing as he tends behind the counter.

"Welcome beautiful maiden! How may I help you today?"

Ryoko blushes a little at the statement but then realizes the obesity of the shopkeeper and gets her thinking straight again.

"Hi! Could I buy some healing elixirs?"

"Why sure! Only 4000gp each!"

"That's a little expensive…do you have anything else?"

"Well, I have these special health drinks, rare edition! They heal one thousand hit points a shot, and quite a bargain at 1000gp each! "

"Well…I guess that will be good enough…okay! I'll take ten…"

"Very good milady! Ten thousand gold please."

A door is heard opening and slamming in the back of the shop. A male voice is heard.

"Hey! Santo! I heard you trying to rip off some newbie, have some decency you fat bastard. Now get your lard ass back here, we have business to discuss."

Santo cringes as he recognizes the voice. He turns to Ryoko with an awkward look on his face.

"Young lady, I apologize for my rude business associate back there…but I have been instructed by my guild master to have a discussion with him on a serious matter of business. I will have to ask you to leave."

"Back here. NOW. I don't have time to waste while you try to rip off a bunch of newbies."

"Err heh…coming!"

Santo runs to the back, waddling as he goes. Ryoko couldn't help but giggle at the sight of the fat player running. Curious, she goes around the corner to the doorway to the back and listens from around the corner. The first voice she hears is that of the unknown person. She peeks around the corner trying to see who it was that called Santo out from the back, but all she could see what the back of Santo's fat character obstructing her view.

"So…one of your boys found something that I am looking for?"

"Ah yes…that unusually strong monster they found. They ended up having to retreat."

"You are sure that your boys aren't just pathetically weak? That it wasn't some quest or event monster?"

"Are you saying Black Star members are weak?"

"Only the ones that try to PK me in the field."

"…"

"Very well then, I will investigate. What is the area word?"

"Your end of the bargain first sir."

"Oh that…here is your trinket."

A metal clang is heard as the unknown person drops something on the floor. Santo picks it up bending over but is still obstructing Ryoko's view with his fat much to her dismay.

"Wow, a Rising Sun! How did you come across one of those at your level?"

"I was given it by a source."

"A hacker?"

"No. A legitimate source."

"Whatever you say buddy, heh. Okay here's your keyword. Lambda: Dying Elusive Ice Wall."

"Thanks Santo. Have fun ripping off newbies."

The door in the back can be heard opening and shutting again. Santo puts the Rising Sun in a nearby chest.

"Bastard…it's how Black Star chooses to play this game. Not our fault people are so susceptible to our methods. Who is he to judge us, a member of the defunct Crimson Knights? Hah! Those losers wouldn't last one minute in the game today."

Santo begins to turn around and head back to the counter. Ryoko quickly runs out the door just as Balmung and Mistral open it. She crashes into them causing a small mess outside. A few passing players look awkwardly at the scene and then go on their business.

"Ryoko! What is going on?" Mistral exclaims getting up.

"Oh…nothing!" Ryoko says a bit flustered.

Balmung shrugs.

"Whatever, lets get going." Balmung says as he walks towards the gate.

Ryoko sighed to herself.

"I never got the he healing items we may need." She said quietly to herself. Mistral hearing this turns to Ryoko.

"Don't worry, I can heal well enough, I have Ol Repth. Besides, that guild shop is the worst you can go to! Those people are really shady…they PK whenever they get the chance. I wouldn't go there even if they had the rarest item ever!"

Ryoko lightens up a little and smiles.

"Yeah…you're right! Thank you so very much Mistral for telling me that."

Mistral smiles, grabs Ryoko's arm, and starts running with her towards Balmung.

"Come on! Let's go before he wonders where we went!"

Ryoko laughs and runs with Mistral towards the Chaos Gate. As they go up the stairway leading to the platform, Ryoko notices Kite and Blackrose descending the stairs. Kite seems to be oblivious as he continues downwards while looking downwards but Blackrose notices them. Blackrose and Ryoko make eye contact and Blackrose glares daggers into Ryoko's eyes with a triumphant smile on her face. Ryoko looks a little shocked and gets a bit flustered as her face goes slightly red in anger. Ryoko grips her axe tightly and nearly starts walking towards Blackrose but stops midway deciding to not hold up Balmung and Mistral any longer. She turns away from Blackrose closing her eyes and continues upwards with her head pointed up trying to communicate to Blackrose that she thinks herself better than Blackrose. Blackrose gets slightly insulted by Ryoko and reaches up to grip her sword as Ryoko reaches the top of the stairwell and walks out of visible sight. Kite finally wakes up and looks at Blackrose perplexed.

"Blackrose? What is it?"

"Oh nothing…I just saw a whiny rat."

"A rat? Where?"

Blackrose laughs and grabs onto Kite's arm while urging him downstairs.

"Oh nothing, don't worry about it."

The two continues down the stairs. Ryoko walks back to the top of the stairway not being able to help herself from seeing if Blackrose was still insulted. She notices Blackrose clinging to Kite and crosses her arms over her chest shaking her head. When Blackrose turns around noticing this, Blackrose sticks her tongue out at Ryoko. Ryoko gets flustered by this raises her axe and almost starts to charge her when she hears Balmung.

"Ryoko! What are you doing?"

Ryoko sighs calming herself down. She walks towards the gate where Balmung and Mistral stand waiting.

"So Balmung, what area do you have in mind?" Mistral asks.

"Hm…I suppose I will select random areas until an appropriate level range pops up."

Ryoko, remembering the events in the Black Star guild shop, realizes the opportunity for excitement. She steps forward towards Balmung.

"Oh Balmung! When I was in that shop, I heard the shopkeeper talking to somebody about a special area."

"Special Area? Rare items!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mistral screams jumping around in excitement. Balmung crosses his arms across his chest.

"Okay…so what is it?"

"What is it? Oh yes! Let me see…Lambda…Dying...Elusive Ice Wall…that's it! Lambda: Dying Elusive Ice Wall."

"Well, let's go to Lambda and see what area level it is." Balmung says touching the gate.

"Lambda Root Town: Carmina Gadelica "

A column of golden rings surrounds Balmung as he disappears. Ryoko turns to go to the gate when Mistral stands in front of her glaring into her eyes.

"Mistral? What is it?" Ryoko asks a bit surprised.

"I saw that."

"Saw what?" Ryoko says with a nervous laugh afterward.

"You and Blackrose…"

"…I'm sorry. She just makes me so mad."

Mistral puts her arms to her side and leans forward a little.

"Why?"

"It's just the way she acts…"

"How so? Tell me."

"I…oh don't worry about it. It really is no big deal."

Mistral shakes her head.

"So much hostility with no words, I know there is something to it. Is it the fact that Kite and Blackrose are dating?"

Ryoko turns red faced nearly instantaneously and she turns away from Mistral.

"Oh…uh…no!"

"Ryoko…I was your age once. I probably would react similarly. It's obvious that you have feelings for Kite, but you've got to realize. Blackrose and Kite were in the whole thing together from the very start. I know Blackrose somewhat…and I know what she and Kite went through. Is it really any surprise that they started dating after it was all over?"

"No..." Ryoko says frowning.

"I will say this though. You are a bit more mature than Blackrose is. Just cheer up! You play The World to have fun right? What fun is it to worry about such silly things? Just vent your frustration out on the monsters in the area we are about to go to!"

Ryoko smiles a little. Mistral grabs Ryoko by the arm again and pulls her towards the Chaos Gate.

"Now let's go, Balmung is going to PK us if we take much longer!" Mistral exclaims laughing. Ryoko laughs a little and the two place their hands on the gate to warp to Carmina Gadelica.

Mid warp, Ryoko thinks to herself.

"Mistral…I know you mean well, but it's not as easy as you make it sound to forget about it."

Ryoko smiles to herself as she continues the thought. Her wings seemed to flutter a little nervously as she became lost in her thought.

"Maybe she has Kite, but one day, Blackrose and I will settle the score once and for all. I don't know how, but I know that some day it will happen. One of us will prove ourselves the better. I need to get stronger to make sure it's me!"

As Mistral and Ryoko manifest at the Carmina Gadelica Chaos Gate, Balmung is standing there with his arms across his chest.

"So sorry for the wait Balmung." Ryoko says a bit flustered seeing Balmung's stance.

"Women…now I remember why I was a soloist…" Balmung muses to himself.

"So Balmung! What's up with that field Ryoko told us about?"

"It is a level 48 water elemental zone. It probably isn't the best area for training."

"Who cares? If it's a secret Black Star field, then it must have a rare item!!!!" Mistral says laughing a bit. Ryoko just stands there quiet. In her mind she was going over all the possibilities of how she could settle the score with Blackrose

"Maybe some contest…or maybe I could hunt her down and PK her!" Ryoko thought to herself. The PK thought made her smirk a little. Balmung looks at Ryoko strangely momentarily although Ryoko doesn't notice.

"So do you guys really want to go to this field?" Balmung asks putting one arm at his side.

"Yeah!!!" Mistral yells. Ryoko merely nods her head a bit lost in her own thoughts.

"Fine" Balmung says turning to the Chaos Gate. He shakes his head slightly as he places his hand on the gate."

"Lambda: Dying Elusive Ice Wall."

A column of golden rings appears around Balmung as he is warped into the field. Mistral runs up to the gate placing her hand on the gate.

"Come on Ryoko! Lambda: Dying Elusive Ice Wall!!!!"

Mistral laughs joyfully as the golden rings surround her transporting her character. Ryoko shakes her head a little.

"It's funny how she gets so worked up over the possibility of rare items." Ryoko thinks to herself with a quiet smile. She walks to the gate and places her hand on the gate.

"Lambda: Dying Elusive Ice Wall."

Ryoko is covered in the golden rings of light as the transfer process begins. In the middle of the warp she thinks to herself again.

"I'm worrying too much about things. Who cares about Blackrose? Why should I get her immaturity keep me from enjoying my time in this game?"

As Ryoko appears in the field, she looks around the area. It is an ice covered field. A blizzard is raging as arctic winds swirl all around Ryoko making it hard to see into the distance. On a nearby hill a few White Cherries can be seen dancing in the blizzard. Nearby, a frozen lake has a magic portal over it. Strewn across the field are various objects and ruins such as signposts and structures. Before long Ryoko hears Balmung's voice.

"Ryoko, a little help please…ugh!"

Balmung gets knocked down by a Harpy Queen's slashing claws. Apparently Mistral and Balmung have been fighting a couple of monsters while waiting for Ryoko to finish warping. There is one Harpy Queen remaining. Ryoko fumbles a little bit at first pulling her axe forward slowly. Balmung takes another hit as his health drops into the red. Mistral quickly begins to start casting Ol Repth on Balmung. Ryoko charges the Harpy Queen and leaps through the air using her wings to gain extra height. As she gets in range she swings her axe at the harpy's head but the harpy evades the attack by flying backwards. Ryoko knocked off balance lands on the ground awkwardly. She looks up just in time to see the Harpy Queen swoop downwards and kick upwards with its feet knocking Ryoko back a few feet. The monster's attack was a critical blow and subtracted about half of Ryoko's health.

"That was so embarrassing…" Ryoko muttered to herself as she got back up. Balmung began engaging the creature again with a series of sword blows, most of which the harpy evades. Mistral holds her staff forward and begins to gather energy.

"OrVak Kruz!" Mistral yells as a number of bright fireballs appear out of nothingness and simultaneously onto the Harpy Queen. This attack does substantial damage to the monster causing it to become infuriated with Mistral. It breaks away from Balmung and charges Mistral. Mistral turns to run from the monster knowing that in melee combat she would easily fall. While the harpy is running towards Mistral, Ryoko runs at the beast from the side. Just as she gets in range, the monster is nearly at Mistral ready to rend its claws into the wavemaster. Ryoko raises her axe as dark elemental energy encases the edge of the blade.

"MeAni Cleave!" Ryoko yells as she leaps into the air and swings her axe vertically across the Harpy Queen. The attack connects as the axe rips straight through the monster's form. The Harpy Queen falls over with a scream as the body of the monster turns gray. A pillar of light surround's Mistral briefly as the words 'Level Up' appear.

"Yay! A level up!" Mistral yells jumping.

"Congratulations Mistral!" Ryoko says smiling. Balmung is quiet for a moment. Mistral notices this and turns to him.

"Balmung? What is wrong?" Mistral asks. At this point Ryoko turns to Balmung with a perplexed look on her face.

"That monster was unusually powerful…especially since this is a level 48 area. It evaded most of my attacks and my character is two levels above this area's level. It just seemed unusual that such a monster would give a party of three such a difficult time."

"Oh you worry too much Balmung! To the dungeon! Rare items!!!" Mistral yells as she uses a speed charm. She begins running in a straight line towards the entrance of the dungeon. Balmung can't help but laugh a little bit as he uses a speed charm to do the same. Balmung begins running towards the dungeon trying to catch up to Mistral.

Ryoko reaches to get a speed charm out of her inventory when she realizes she didn't have one. It was another item she meant to buy while in town. Ryoko lets out a deep sigh and begins to walk towards the dungeon entrance. Her character begins to shiver due to the cold environment and the less than adequate clothing for this type of weather that the character wears. As she walks towards the entrance she can't help but to admire the field. Winter is Ryoko's favorite holiday. She had many fond memories with her family in various places during the winter. Looking at the purple star filled sky reminded her of when she went to the auroras as the North Pole on a school field trip.

Before too long, the entrance to the dungeon appears. It is a simple looking stone structure with a few torches around it. Icicles come down from the doorway leading to the stairs into the dungeon. As Ryoko turns to enter the dungeon, she notices a bright flash of light on the horizon.

"What was that light?" Ryoko thinks to herself. She walks towards the source of the light and looks out into the distance. Ryoko sees two Harpy Queens and an Ancient attacking the outline of a single player. She bites her lip witnessing this.

"I hope that player can get away from them." Ryoko says still a little wary from the last fight where they struggled to bring one monster down let alone three. The figure in the distance holds his hand forward as a long weapon appears in his hand in a flash of light seemingly out of thin air. The player leaps into the air and comes down on one of the Harpy Queen's heads. The blow is a one shot kill as the Harpy Queen falls to the ground. Ryoko's eyes widen a little at this.

"So strong…I need to get strong like that if I am to settle the score with Blackrose." Ryoko thinks to herself as she prepares to walk forward to get a better look at the player when she hears Mistral call out.

"Ryoko?! Did you get lost? Do you need help finding us?"

Ryoko gets flustered and her face turns red in embarrassment as she quickly turns to go into the dungeon. Mistral is standing there looking around while Balmung is sitting down.

"Sorry you two, I didn't have any speed charms on me." Ryoko admits a little embarrassed. Mistral frowns at this news.

"We should be sorry; we made the assumption and did not ask. That was rude of us." Mistral said a little apologetically. Ryoko had the feeling though she said that out of obligation more than heartfelt sincerity. It was common knowledge that players should carry speed charms or equipment capable of using Ap Do at all times to lessen the burden of the party. Ryoko couldn't help but stay embarrassed that she had not restocked.

"Well let's get going." Ryoko says walking towards the dungeon's next room. Mistral shakes her head.

"Balmung is away. He had something to do." Suddenly her head piques up as something gets her attention. Ryoko looks around to see what was captivating Mistral. Mistral then sits down herself.

"I'll be back! I have to take care of the baby!"

Ryoko shrugs. Ryoko shakes her head a bit which causes some snow to fall off of her character. This causes a little more snow to come out of her wings. Alone in the dungeon while the others are away, Ryoko looks at her surroundings. The dungeon took a palace theme. At the entrance a carpet can be seen leading deeper into the dungeon. On the wall are various immovable paintings with frames inlaid by various jewels. Torches lined against the walls give brilliant illumination. The palace seems fit for an emperor until a growl deep in the dungeon sends chills down Ryoko's spine.

Balmung and Mistral come back from away nearly simultaneously. Balmung gets up first.

"Ah so you made it. I apologize if I made you two wait long." Balmung says as he heads to the corridor leading deeper into the dungeon. He pulls a small green orb out of his pocket and throws it into the air. The orb explodes in a flash of sparkles as three fairies appear and run into the dungeon.

Mistral stands up. She looks at Balmung mischievously.

"A fairy orb? You cheater! Where is the sense of adventure?" She says laughing. Ryoko gets embarrassed again. She wished that she had thought to use a fairy orb herself while the other two were away."

Balmung gives Mistral a sly grin.

"Well if we are here on a treasure hunt, it does us no good to be poking around in dead ends."

Mistral nods and runs into the next room. Balmung follows her after motioning for Ryoko to follow. She gasps a bit as she comes to attention. She had become lost in thought again. Balmung sighs as he goes through the doorway. Ryoko enters the doorway and looks at the new surroundings. A magic portal hovers in the air ominously. Balmung is looking at a parchment while Mistral stands by. It appears to be the map that the fairies drew for Balmung. Balmung puts the map away and turns to Ryoko and Mistral.

"This dungeon is rather straightforward. We head north for three rooms and then east to the stairwell downstairs." Balmung says walking towards the portal. The portal begins to expand and contract quickly as Balmung draws his sword. Ryoko takes a combative stance waiting to see what appears.

"This time I will do better!" Ryoko thinks to herself. She readies her axe and waits in anticipation. The portal reaches it's peak of movement and a flash of light occurs. Ryoko runs forward thinking a monster will appear but a monster does not appear. Ryoko looks around each direction confused. The portal had put out a blue treasure chest.

"A chest!" Ryoko says walking towards it. She relaxes her grip on her axe a bit and places it on the ground as she bends down over the chest. Balmung stands there with a bemused grin of anticipation on his face. Mistral calls out to Ryoko not sure if she realized why the chest was blue.

"Fortune Wire!"

Ryoko jumps a little bit at the sudden input but turns to Mistral nodding. She then focuses on the chest again as she reaches into her inventory and pulls out a small glowing wire. Balmung gets a look of disappointment on his face as he looks at Mistral. Mistral grins a little.

"You know that would have been mean." Mistral whispers to Balmung. Balmung just shrugs. Ryoko uses the wire on the chest and it begins to disarm. When the bar that appeared on her screen was full, the chest should have been disarmed. However, there was a small pocket of server lag. Not enough to be noticed by her, but enough to interfere with the disarm process. Ryoko pops the chest open immediately when the bar filled on her screen when in reality the chest was slightly behind due to the lag. The chest explodes violently and sends a wide eyed Ryoko flying into to the air, hitting the ceiling, and then landing on the ground on her stomach. Her character is stunned briefly. Balmung turns around unable to keep a straight face and starts to laugh, but not after turning off his microphone temporarily. Mistral closes her eyes annoyed and swats Balmung in the face with her staff. Ryoko sighs and buries her head into her arms as her character lies on the ground. She was too embarrassed to get up and face her group.

"Ol Repth" Mistral says as blue light covers Ryoko healing her. Mistral casts the spell several more times to bring the angelic heavy axe back to her full health. Mistral then walks over to her and outstretches her hand.

"What happened?" Mistral asked innocently enough.

"I don't know." Ryoko says as she takes Mistral's hand and finally gets up. "The bar filled before I opened the chest."

Mistral sighed.

"I guess there was a bit of lag or something, it has happened to me before…more times than I care to admit really." Mistral says trying to encourage Ryoko. Ryoko nods and then walks ahead into the next room. Mistral waits for Balmung whom after regaining his composure walks up to Mistral.

"Do you really set off traps by lag often?" Balmung asks. Mistral grins at him.

"Never; I make it a rule to wait 30 seconds for that reason." She says smiling and pulling Balmung with her into the next room. The rest of the first floor was a clear shot to the stairway leading down. The group proceeds quietly until Ryoko looks at Balmung. Mistral continues walking ahead with Balmung as Ryoko pauses.

"Hey Balmung…"

Balmung still walking turns his head to Ryoko. Ryoko starts walking again to keep up.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever seen a player walking about without a drawn weapon and when needed pull it out of thin air?"

"Like he was pulling it out of a pocket of light?" Balmung asks. Ryoko nods her head.

"Yeah, I saw another player in the field do that before entering the dungeon."

"Well there is a quest out there that gives a player the ability to do that."

"Really? What is it called?"

"It is a level 55 quest called Dimensional Generator. It is an extremely time consuming quest where you need to go to fifty fields to gather components for the key item that would allow you to pull your weapon out of thin air like that. Only a handful of players have actually taken the time to do that quest. I have only done five of the fields needed, and now that I have de-leveled I cannot progress further until I regain level 55." Balmung says sighing to himself.

"Is it a big advantage to have that ability?"

"Not really…it is purely cosmetic. I am surprised that a player who finished that quest would be in this field."

Ryoko nods satisfied with the answer as the group reaches the stairway. Mistral jumps down the stairs and runs into the second floor. Balmung and Ryoko descend the stairs afterward. Ryoko's wings flutter slightly in anticipation of what comes next. The three enter a room containing a magic portal in the middle of a bridge. The bridge has no railing on the side and hovers over a massive pool of lava. Balmung draws his sword and steps forward. Mistral stands back as Ryoko readies her axe in both of her hands.

The portal rotates and pulses rapidly until in a flash of light a Squidbod appears: A massive hulking monster covered in thick armor with a lance grafted into one of it's arms. Balmung curses to himself as he charges the creature. Ryoko follows shortly after charging forwards with her axe ready to swing when she gets in range. Mistral begins gathering energy for a spell.

Balmung slashes horizontally at the Squidbod only to be denied by a translucent shell of energy nullifying the damage. Ryoko swings her axe as hard her character can at the monster's head but the same thing happens. The monster turns to Ryoko ready to thrust with its lance when Mistral's voice is heard.

"Damn! Physical Tolerance!" Balmung says gritting his teeth. Ryoko moves away from the Squidbod while thinking of another strategy. She stands to the side of the beast near the edge of the bridge.

"OrRue Rom!" The wavemaster screams. A frozen wind erupts on the Squidbod with chunks of ice appearing shortly after to crash into the Squidbod's form. Dents began to be seen in the monster's armor. Balmung leaps back behind the Squidbod swatting it to get it's attention and then run backwards.. He quickly changes his gauntlets to an exotic looking pair of wavemaster gloves. He holds his hands out as energy forms between them. Ryoko notices what Balmung is doing and looks in her inventory for an item to cast a wavemaster spell herself. Mistral's shrill voice is heard again as the Squidbod begins to charge Balmung.

"MeRai Don!"

A powerful bolt of lightning appears out of the sky and bursts into the Squidbod's form. The lightning rends a critical wound in the beast's back slowing down its movement. Balmung nearly finishes with his spell. Ryoko changes her footwear and begins to gather energy between her hands after putting her axe to a side.

"I hope this will work…" Ryoko says to herself. She never had much faith in the magical abilities of her character.

"MeRue Zot!"

The air around the Squidbod freezes as a sharpened pillar of ice impales it from below. Mistral begins casting another spell as Ryoko finishes her own spell.

"MeAni Zot!"

The area around the Squidbod turns unnaturally dark and bones shoot out of the ground impaling the beast. The Squidbod becomes infuriated with the barrage of attacks; it charges at Ryoko, who is closest to it, with its lance. Ryoko is slow to react as the lance plunges into her character and knocks her off the bridge. In the process of doing this however, the Squidbod also falls into the lava, its bulk coupled with the inertia causes it to be unable to stop. Mistral seeing this stops casting and runs over to the edge looking for Ryoko. Balmung does the same shortly after. As the two look for the heavy axe, she is nowhere to be found.

"Ryoko!" Mistral calls.

"Where are you?!" Balmung shouts.

On the other side of the bridge, Ryoko's voice is heard.

"I'm over here…"

Surprised, Balmung and Mistral turn around. Ryoko is slowly coming up the other side flying with her wings. A moment later she lands on the ground safely and smiles gently. Mistral smiles back at Ryoko glad to see that she is alright, but Balmung shakes his head in disgust.

"This is why you do not stand at the edge of bridges like that. You should consider yourself lucky." Balmung says. Ryoko's expression instantly goes from happy to depressed and Mistral glares at Balmung with malice in her eyes. Balmung turns around and starts walking towards the doorway leading to the next room. Ryoko goes to recover her axe while Mistral approaches Balmung. The doorway has not opened yet. The group was still considered to be in combat.

"Odd." Balmung says as he goes back to where the Squidbod fell. Peering down he sees the Squidbod slowly dying in the lava. Sighing Balmung holds his hand towards the monster gathering energy. Ryoko and Mistral turn to Balmung noticing what he is doing.

"What is it?" Mistral asks. Ryoko stays quiet still upset over Balmung's words. Her wings lower somewhat reflecting her mood.

"It's still alive, but not for long. Rue Rom!"

A blue flash occurs at the Squidbod and it dies. The three gain experience as a golden glow surrounds Ryoko. The words 'level up' appears above Ryoko's head as she is automatically healed to full. Ryoko feels happiness again as her wings perk up. It had been some time since she gained a level; she almost forgot what it was like. Mistral smiles at Ryoko and congratulates her. The doorway opens now that the battle is over. Balmung walks through it paying no attention to Ryoko's level up. Perturbed, Ryoko puts her hand at her side while looking at Balmung.

"He doesn't like me, does he?" Ryoko asks looking at Mistral.

"He doesn't really like anyone…except Orca and Kite." Mistral says walking forward. "Don't take it personal, he just has a really bad superiority complex."

Ryoko nods after a sigh and follows Mistral into the next room. It is a three way intersection. Skeletons in hanging cages are scattered all across the room. A pile of bones rests in the center of the room. Balmung stands there thinking about which path would lead out. Ryoko pulls a fairy orb out of her inventory and throws it into the air. A few moments later, the map is drawn for her.

"If we go left, there is just one magic portal and then the stairwell to the next level." Ryoko says. Balmung silently begins walking to the left and into the room. Mistral follows Balmung quickly. Ryoko looks at the room for a minute, gets shivers from the creepiness of the layout, and then goes into the room with the other two dragging her axe behind her. It is a narrow corridor with a magic portal in the center. More skeletons hang from cages above. Ryoko halfway expected the skeletons to leap out of the cages and attack. Balmung draws his blade and walks towards the magic portal. An Ancient appears; an undead sorcerer's wraith. Mistral quickly casts a spell as Balmung begins to charge the creature. Ryoko follows Balmung and raises her axe.

"Rai Don!" The wavemaster shouts. A bolt of lightning bursts down above the Ancient, but a shell appears around it as it laughs. The bolt is deflected by the shell and it flies into Balmung shocking his character.

"Shoot! Magic Tolerance!" Mistral yells. Balmung leaps into the air and brings his blade down on the Ancient's Head stunning it briefly. The Ancient retaliates by casting a spell causing a number of meteors to fall on Balmung causing some hefty damage. Balmung then falls back barely evading a fatal physical attack from the Ancient. Mistral begins casting Ol Repth on him. Ryoko remembers what she saw earlier before she entered the dungeon; the player leaping onto the monster's head using an attack to instantly kill it. Ryoko leaps up using her wings to glide above the Ancient. Electrical energy begins to be channeled into her axe. Ryoko then allows herself fall onto the Ancient.

"Rai Tornado!" Ryoko yells as she begins to spin her axe around quickly. Her axe's blade covered in electricity as it pummels the Ancient repeatedly. Each connecting hit knocking away pieces of the beast's undead body. When Ryoko's attack finishes, the Ancient is all but dead. She raises her axe to finish the attack but Balmung thrusts his blade into the monster before she has the chance. The Ancient screams in pain as it falls over dead. The three gain experience as the doorway opens.

"Not bad…" Balmung says while looking at Ryoko with a grin. He then walks out of the room and into the next. Ryoko is immediately red faced with shyness. She couldn't help herself. Mistral walks up to Ryoko and pokes her.

"See? He's not all bad." Mistral says smiling. She then goes into the next room urging Ryoko to follow. Ryoko nods and goes into the next room. Torches line the room as they lead to a stairwell down. The three descend to the third floor.

On the third floor, Balmung uses another fairy orb.

"Interesting…this floor has only one room with no magic portal in it, then the Gott Statue." Balmung muses.

"Yay! The treasure!" Mistral says yelling as she walks into the corridor into the next room. Balmung walks after her until Mistral releases an ear piercing scream of terror. Balmung rushes into the room. Ryoko confused follows. She wondered what could make someone as jovial as Mistral scream like that. As soon as Ryoko enters the room, her question is answered.

A massive monster stands before the three: A house golem. Not only that, but it was covered in corrupted green polygons and code. This was a data bug. Ryoko grips her axe tightly and her knees begin to shake. She fought only a handful of these with Kite, but she knew they were very dangerous. Mistral begins to back up.

"Impossible!" Balmung yells. He turns to leave the room but the door closes behind them causing Balmung to yell in frustration. "Damn it!"

"Now what?! We can't kill this!" Mistral yells obviously afraid.

"We have to try. Perhaps now that the incident is over, they can be defeated." Balmung says as he leaps towards the golem. He brings his sword down on the monster's body causing a lengthy gash into it. Balmung grins as he follows up with a vertical slash that causes the monster to howl in pain. To Balmung's horror, however the wound glows and becomes covered in virus data immediately regenerating the monster. The golem reaches back with its fists and crash into Balmung sending the blademaster flying into the wall. He is stunned as he is slow to get up. The golem walks forward as Mistral finishes casting a spell.

"RaJuk Rom!"

A wind picks up around the golem as razor sharp leaves and life energy crashes into the golem causing it to be blown apart. The golem seems to be literally torn in half by the spell's violent energy. Mistral smiles vindicated but that smile quickly fades as the golem restores itself. Ryoko takes action and charges the Golem from the side. She leaps up onto the beast's shoulders and calls out.

"Axel Pain!"

Ryoko begins to spin her axe around gathering inertia and force behind it. A moment later she strikes the golem in the head with the full force of the attack. The golem's head flies off its shoulders and onto the ground nearby. Balmung and Mistral look at Ryoko in disbelief of what happened and then breathe a sigh of relief believing at first the bug is dead. Ryoko walks towards the two with her back to the golem smiling. Midway however, Balmung and Mistral's expressions change to those of shock.

"Look out!" Mistral calls. Ryoko turns around barely in time to see a virus covered boulder fly straight at her. Ryoko tries to leap to the side of it but does so too slowly and is hit. She goes flying past Balmung and Mistral and hits the wall of the room only to be crushed by the boulder again a split second later. Ryoko feels a sharp sensation of pain in reality. The real player feels as though she were hit by the boulder in reality. The character Ryoko falls to the ground stunned while the beast walks over to its head and picks it up. It puts it's head back in place and it quickly regenerates. Balmung runs behind the House Golem swatting it with his blade as he runs by it. The golem focuses its attention on Balmung and turns away from Ryoko. Mistral begins casting Ol Repth on the heavy axe but she doesn't move.

As Ryoko lies on the ground, a number of thoughts entered her head. The seriousness of the situation dawns upon her.

"The old data bugs never caused pain like that in reality…they just caused normal damage. How can we fight something like this? Kite isn't here to data drain it and all of our attacks are meaningless. I am scared…I can't move here or in reality…what is wrong with me?!"

"Ryoko! Are you alright?" Mistral's voice calls out.

"Get up!" Balmung grunts as he fends off the data bug with a series of parries.

Ryoko is silent for a moment.

"But…if I let a data bug get me this badly…how will I ever face Blackrose and come out on top?" Ryoko thinks to herself. The images of Blackrose belittling her encourage her to think of something. She slowly gets up and picks her axe up. Mistral sighs with relief and focuses on healing Balmung who is taking some hits as well. Due to Balmung's higher level, he can absorb them easier and does not feel as much shock in reality when he fails to stop the attacks. Ryoko runs up to the data bug swinging her axe horizontally causing a wide gash. The gash quickly regenerates itself and then lets a burst of energy fly at Ryoko sending her flying across the room. She feels the sensation of real pain again as she gets up angered. She gets ready to run at the data bug when she hears a loud crashing noise from behind her. Ryoko turns around and looks at the door.

The doorway behind them begins to feel something pounding against it. Dents appear in the door and a few moments later it collapses into fragments. Ryoko breathes a sigh of relief that something opened the door. She had forgotten that closed rooms can be broken into by force from outside the locked room. Now escape from the losing battle was possible, but she was curious to see who or what tore down the door.

A new player enters the room. He carries no visible weapon and his body is of a build slightly smaller than Balmung's. His torso was covered in black chain mail. The rings of the mail appeared to be made of a strong alloy that reflected light quite well considering the color. Covering this chain mail is a loose white tunic of sorts. Where the arms come out of the chain mail, a pair of white pauldrons can be seen guarding the player's shoulders. The player's arms have black metal plating over them, but not fully. If the player were standing with his arms at his side, the plating covers the external part of the arm, but the inside of the arm is uncovered. The plating is only of moderate thickness with the edge of the plating covered in a separate white alloy. Parts of it are raised with increased thickness to allow for the player to parry weaker attacks with his arm versus his weapon.

His hands are covered in gloves that are made of the same material and cover his hands similarly to his arms. The fingers end in spikes which almost look like claws which would allow the player to attack with his empty hand between swings of his weapon or if his weapon was knocked away. Around his waist his some light white plating secured to his waist by a gold rope. The player's legs are covered in loose fitting white pants and on his feet are somewhat normal looking boots covered in the same black metal plating as his arms. Across the player's entire body are white markings indicating that his character favored all elements equally. The most attention casting thing in Ryoko's eyes was an amulet that hung around the player's neck by a silver chain. It was a light green gem held to a silver back by polished silver bands. The bands seemed to form a symbol of infinity. The gem sometimes appeared to glow faintly in the darkened room. Looking at the player's face, Ryoko could see dark blue eyes in a face that wasn't particularly different from anybody else's. White symbols could be seen on the player's cheeks underneath his eyes which matched the symbols on the rest of his body. His light tan hair, which almost seemed gold colored in the lighting, was of a fair length that seemed to form spikes that flowed behind him when he moved. The spikes flow mostly backwards except for his bangs which form short spikes covering some of the player's forehead. The overall appearance was almost exotic.

He walks forward and looks at the data bug. He places his hand as his side and leans back with a bemused smile on his face.

"Ah, so here it is." The player says walking a step forward.

Ryoko immediately recognized the voice; It was the voice that called out Santo in the Black Star guild shop. The surprise makes her feel a bit vindicated as her curiosity was finally sated. Her attention focused on the new player is noticed by the data bug as it runs past Balmung and Mistral towards Ryoko. The House Golem raises its arms ready to come down on Ryoko's head as soon as she is in range. Balmung calls out to Ryoko to watch out as Mistral looks for an SP recovery item to use. Balmung tries to catch the data bug in it's backside to stun it but misses it. Ryoko turns around to notice the data bug only a few feet away. Her eyes widen as a look of terror crosses her face. She closes her eyes and braces for the blow when she hears a metal clanging.

The newly arrived player in a split second movement intercepted the attack with his arms. He stands in front of Ryoko with both of his arms above him. The House Golem's data corrupted arm pushes down against the new player trying to break past him but he stands firm able to hold off the attack for the moment. He turns his head towards Ryoko.

"Do you mind getting out of the way so I can deal with this thing?" The player asked in a confident voice. Ryoko a bit puzzled as to what the player intends to do quickly moves away and goes to recover her axe from across the room. Balmung and Mistral stand looking at the scene a bit shocked. The player leaps back causing the golem's arm to crash into the ground. He holds his hands forward and gathers red energy between them. Ryoko picks up her axe and looks at the player curiously wondering what he will do now.

"GiVak Kruz!"

A number of large fireballs appear around the data bug and crash into it which sends it flying clear across the room over the heads of Balmung and Mistral. The data bug is stunned briefly. Mistral gives a gleeful shout quite impressed with a non-wavemaster's ability to use that spell. The player walks up to Balmung and Mistral and puts his arm at his side looking at the two. Ryoko walks towards them wondering what will happen now. Balmung opens his mouth to speak, but the unknown player beats him to first words.

"You three, get out of here. This thing is way out of your league." The player says in a blunt tone. Balmung gets angered by this player's brazen arrogance and steps forward.

"Now look here you, we were here first and I believe that this thing is out of YOUR league. We have experience in dealing with monsters like this."

"Oh your experience really shows. I am so impressed by your ability to stun the beast off your weakest teammate." The player says dejectedly with a sigh. Ryoko couldn't help but smile to herself at this statement making Balmung look like a fool. Balmung's face turns red with anger and he draws his sword forward.

"Do you know who I am?! I am Balmung of the…"

"Azure Sky." The player responds with contempt in your voice. "I guess what they say about you is true."

Balmung has a vindicated grin on his face.

"Then you know of my exploits and famous adventures."

"Actually, I was referring to how your are known to some as Balmung of the Azure Ego. How you're known to have a mouth of which size is dwarfed only by your oversized ego and with nowhere near the skill to match said ego."

Mistral and Ryoko can't help themselves anymore and giggle a bit out loud despite the fact that there is a dangerous data bug slowly coming out of its stunned state. Balmung is silent momentarily, but not for long.

"You arrogant bastard. Begone! We will deal with this creature ourselves. Come on Mistral, Ryoko!" Balmung says as he walks towards the data bug. Mistral and Ryoko do not move however. Balmung turns around noticing this and his anger knows no bounds towards the unknown player. Ryoko sighs knowing the inevitable outcome. She holds her axe behind her and swings her hips back and forth waiting. She bites her lip not looking forward to what is going to happen.

"Who do you think you are?" Balmung yells at the player.

"I think I am ten levels higher than you Azure Mouth. Now get lost. The thing is starting to wake up." The player says stepping forward. He holds his hand out and a flash of light occurs as a weapon materializes. It is a black metal pole. Around the middle is a handle of sorts with a few small buttons inlaid into the metal on them. The end of the pole is a long sizable light green spearhead; a finely crafted work of metal with arcane symbols on it. The edge curves upwards slightly and the top of the edge is serrated. A number of gears and glyphs can be seen along wear the blade meets the pole indicating that it may have more function.

"You took the time to do that stupid time consuming quest to have a fancy weapon drawing animation?" Balmung sneered. He was running out of material quickly to put this guy down on.

"It is really an easy quest with good friends. I am surprised that one so 'famous' as you never did the quest." The player says with a grin. Balmung's patience runs out. He walks towards the player with a murderous look in his eyes that almost scares Ryoko. Ryoko had only ever seen Balmung calm and collected and seeing this side of him was both interesting and strange. Mistral slowly walks away when she notices the data bug standing up all the way and moving slowly towards them.

"Um guys…the monster is coming." Mistral says with a hint of worry in her voice that makes Ryoko uneasy. She looks at the data bug with worried concern in her eyes. How were they going to get away from the dangerous bug? Without Kite, they could not defeat the bug. Balmung turns his attention to the bug but the player walks between Balmung and the bug and then starts walking towards it.

"Hey! I told you we got it!" Balmung yells as he grabs the player's shoulder. The player doesn't turn around but speaks to Balmung.

"This is your last warning. Get out of here." The player says coldly.

"No. I will not." Balmung says indignantly.

"Fine…then it comes to this." The player says as he turns to Balmung looking him in the eye. A silence is observed by Ryoko momentarily until it is broken by the player.

"Rai Penetrate!"

Balmung has a look of surprise on his face but it is too late. In a flash of movement, the player thrusts his spear straight through Balmung's chest penetrating straight through the armor and coming out of Balmung's back. Electricity crackles off the spear as he pulls it out of Balmung. Balmung gasps as his character turns gray and falls to the ground. Ryoko gasps herself in shock that the player would take such a measure.

"Sorry, I despise player killing, but it was necessary. Besides you had it coming for your arrogance." The player says to Balmung's corpse. turning to Mistral and Ryoko.

"You two, please leave this thing to me. Your party is not sufficiently leveled to deal with this monster and Azure Mouth there would have undoubtedly gotten you killed needlessly."

Mistral nods and immediately runs off grabbing Ryoko by the arm. Ryoko pulls away from Mistral motioning for her to go ahead without her. Mistral shrugs and runs out of the room. The sound of a sprite ocarina can be heard and Mistral leaves the dungeon. The player looks at Ryoko with a frown on his face.

"What is it? I need to deal with this thing." The player says noticing that the data bug is nearly upon them.

"You know, you can't defeat that thing no matter how strong you are. But I know someone who can! I'll bring him here as soon as possible!" Ryoko says trying to smile pleasantly.

The player just looks at the monster approaching then looks at Ryoko.

"Sure, whatever, just go and get your friend."

"You should leave too…I'm told that this monster is dangerous."

"Nah, not really, just a tough one." The player says as he readies his attack taking a combative stance.

"Hey…what is your name?" Ryoko asks leaning forward trying to look cute and impossible to ignore.

The player doesn't look at Ryoko more focused on the monster.

"Why do you want to know?"

Ryoko immediately breaks the pose and looks at the player dejectedly.

"Why not?"

The player sighs a little and looks at Ryoko.

"Ryzen. Now leave!" The player says as he charges the House Golem and locks with it in melee combat. Ryoko hesitates at first and steps forward to help him when she gets a message from Mistral.

To: Ryoko

From: Mistral

What are you still doing there?! Kite is coming to Carmina Gadelica, meet with us there to go to the dungeon to take care of that thing. Also Balmung logged off…he was mad but I thought he did kind of deserve what happened to him.

Ryoko sighs and runs out of the room. She turns back to look at how Ryzen is doing. Ryzen gets hit flying back a short distance. He rights himself in the air and lands on his feet sliding backwards while reaching into the ground with one of his clawed hands to slow the backward movement.

"I can't help now…I need to hurry and bring Kite here!" Ryoko thinks to herself content that Ryzen can handle himself relatively well against the undefeatable monster.

Ryoko pulls a sprite ocarina out and begins to play it. The golden rings surround her character and transport her back to the field. She quickly gates out and shortly ends up in Carmina Gadelica. Mistral is waiting for her by the Chaos Gate.

"I'm glad you made it here alright! I was afraid if you hung around that player for too long he would PK you like he did to Balmung." Mistral says smiling.

Ryoko laughs a little bit and looks around for Kite.

"Where is Kite? We need him to help us defeat that monster!"

"He said he would be here shortly…though the tone of his short mail leads me to think he doesn't believe that a data bug could possibly still exist." Mistral says shrugging. Ryoko rests her axe on the ground and halfway leans against it while waiting. She is quiet in thought. Mistral notices this and jumps in front of Ryoko.

"What's up?" Mistral asks innocently enough.

Ryoko snaps to attention.

"Huh?"

"You're quieter than usual." Mistral says poking Ryoko's side which causes her to lose her balance off her axe. She quickly regains her balance and puts her hands behind her back looking at Carmina Gadelica's sky.

"Just something about that player. He was the one that I heard talking with the shopkeeper of that guild shop. There is something about him that I can't put my finger on." Ryoko says with a look of wonderment on her face.

Mistral shrugs and then looks at Ryoko with her head tilted to a side slightly.

"Just a game! Why think so much instead of playing? I mean it was just some random level 60 long arm right?" Mistral says smiling.

Ryoko shrugs and just drops it. Kite and Blackrose appear at The Chaos Gate a few seconds later. Kite has a pleasant look on his face. Blackrose does as well until she notices Ryoko. Blackrose glares daggers at Ryoko again but Ryoko doesn't show any reaction. She was more concerned about the data bug than petty jealousy right now. Kite is the first to speak.

"Hey everyone, I came as soon as I could. So where is the data bug?" Kite asks Mistral and Ryoko.

"Dying Elusive Ice Wall" Ryoko says quietly before Mistral has a chance to speak. Blackrose looks obviously irritated.

"There had better actually be a data bug here. You pulled Kite and I from the middle of a dungeon." Blackrose says gripping her weapon with one hand. The irritation in her voice is obvious. Mistral gives Blackrose a dejected look as Kite sighs. Blackrose relaxes her grip on her sword and crosses her arms over her chest looking away. Ryoko looks mildly irritated herself but tried to not show it.

"Who does she think she is, queen of The World?" Ryoko thinks to herself.

"So what kind of data bug is it?" Kite asks looking at Mistral.

"It was a big golem type…I think it said House Golem."

Kite folds his arms over his chest in thought for a moment.

"That's a powerful data bug. I thought we destroyed all of them." Kite muses. He then walks over to the gate.

"Lambda: Dying Elusive Ice Wall" Kite says as the golden rings surround him transporting him to the field. Ryoko and Mistral walk towards the gate but Blackrose rushes ahead of them knocking Ryoko aside slightly which causes her to bump into Mistral.

"How rude of you!" Ryoko says looking at Blackrose with quite a bit of malice in her eyes. Blackrose ignores her and utters the keywords at the gate transporting to the field. Ryoko stands there with her eyes closed and a clenched fist. Mistral looks at Ryoko with a sincere look on her face.

"Don't try it…Blackrose is level 85 right now. She always has been a bit…abrasive to other people. She was even like that to Kite when they first met." Mistral says trying to calm Ryoko down before war erupts in the field.

Ryoko sighs and relaxes her grip. She knew that Mistral was right. At the very least she would need to become a better and stronger player to deal with Blackrose. She turns to Mistral was a pondering look in her eyes.

"What does Kite see in her? A girl with no sophistication or grace."

"Maybe that is what he sees in her." Mistral muses as she walks towards the gate and says the keywords. Before Ryoko can respond Mistral disappears. Ryoko walks up to the gate.

"Lambda: Dying Elusive Ice Wall" Ryoko utters as she begins the warp process to enter the field. Golden rings surround her character as she is transported to the field. Two minutes after Ryoko warps out, three golden rings appear at the Chaos Gate as a player begins to appear. Ryzen walks forward with a look of disgust on his face. He holds his weapon

"Not even the slightest bit closer. Just another brainless bug." Ryzen sighs as he walks into the main part of the town. He takes his spear and motions as though he were going to attach it to his back. The spear glows brightly and disappears until it is drawn again. He seems to be limping as he walks forward as though he sprained his ankle. A few minutes later his character flashes green and he walks normally again.

Kite, Blackrose, and Mistral are waiting at the entry point when Ryoko materializes. Blackrose sighs and uses a speed charm. Mistral does the same and stretches her arms behind her head. Kite changes his footwear to his Time Boots and casts Ap Do on himself. Before Ryoko can react, Kite casts Ap Do on her and then puts his normal armor back on. Kite smiles at her briefly and then begins running towards the dungeon entrance. Ryoko turns slightly red faced for a second, but Blackrose glares at Ryoko while grabbing her blade and then runs after Kite.

Mistral shakes her head agitated by Blackrose's behavior and runs behind the two. Ryoko follows shortly after with a frown on her face. The group of four enter the dungeon shortly and begin to clear it as they head to the bottom. Due to Blackrose and Kite's high level, they make quick work of anything that crosses their path. Ryoko a couple of times had to dodge a wild 'accidental' swing that Blackrose would somehow always make in her direction while fighting a monster. She would give an insincere apology that would boil Ryoko's blood to no end. On the third floor of the dungeon, the group stops before the room the data bug was seen in. Ryoko walks forward in the direction of the doorway.

"Here it is...the data bug should be inside that room." Ryoko says.

"There had better be a big green virus covered monster here." Blackrose says agitated.

"Blackrose…" Kite says with his arm at his side. Even though he was Blackrose's boyfriend, even he was getting tired of Blackrose's attitude. Blackrose gets an annoyed look on her face and crosses her arms over her chest quietly. Ryoko rolls her eyes as she charges into the room axe first.

"Ryzen?! Are you still here?" Ryoko shouts while looking through the room for the data bug or Ryzen. Neither is there to be found.

"Ryoko?" Kite asks a bit confused.

"I knew it! This was a waste of our time! Damn you Ryoko, I can't believe you got Kite and I into this dungeon!" Blackrose says through her teeth. Ryoko runs around the room frantically trying to find something that would prove the data bug's existence. Mistral shakes her head angrily and goes straight to Blackrose's face.

"I am the one who called Kite. Not Ryoko. If you are going to be angry at anyone be angry at me! I don't know what's wrong with you, but chill out! This was a bit of an adventure like old times! So the data bug isn't here…isn't that a good thing?"

Kite scratches his chin in thought. He sighs and drops his hands to their sides.

"Mistral is right Blackrose. You are acting a bit out of line even for you."

Blackrose turns red faced that Kite called her out. She looks at Kite with an apologetic look on her face.

"Sorry Kite…I'm just a little easier to anger lately..."

Kite nods his head and says nothing else on the matter. Mistral immediately drops her anger understanding what was going on. Ryoko walks back. Blackrose tries to look at her with a straight look on her face.

"So…what happened?" Blackrose asks in Mistral and Ryoko's direction. She had a tone in her voice that made it obvious she still didn't believe the claims that a data bug was here.

"I'm telling you guys, there really and truly was a data bug here!" Mistral shouts. "You can ask Balmung when he comes back in!"

Kite nods.

"I believe you. I don't see why you and Ryoko would lie about such a serious matter. It's just we cleared the data bugs after the incident was over. I don't see how they could still be around. Both Helba and Lios told us that no more virus data could be found."

"Maybe CC Corp Administration deleted it."

"No…they never had the capability to delete the data bugs." Kite muses almost to himself. "In any case…the bug is gone. I guess there is no reason to stay here." Kite says pulling a sprite ocarina out. Blackrose nods and looks at Mistral and Ryoko, then focuses her attention on Mistral.

"Sorry that I was so angry. See you…guys later." Blackrose says grabbing Kite's arm.

"Bye Kite, Blackrose!" Mistral shouts waving.

"Goodbye." Ryoko says quietly with her arms straight behind her back. She had a look of disappointment on her face though nobody else seemed to notice. Golden rings surround Blackrose and Kite as the two disappear. Mistral begins running towards the back room of the dungeon. Curious, Ryoko turns to Mistral.

"Where are you going?" Ryoko asks Mistral. Mistral turns around and looks at Ryoko.

"Well since we are done with this dungeon, we might as well get the Gott Statue items!" Mistral says with a wide grin on her face. Are you coming?"

"No…I think I have had enough of this dungeon for the day." Ryoko says. Mistral shrugs.

"More for me I guess! If I find anything you can use I'll send it to you! You know, Blackrose wasn't really mad at you personally."

This gets Ryoko's attention. She looks at Mistral with a questioning look on her face. Her wings rise a little bit to reflect the expression on her face.

"Oh? What then?"

There is an awkward silence for a minute. Mistral closes her eyes with a bemused grin and rests her hand on her waist.

"Never mind…but trust me, it's not you." Mistral says running to the Gott Statue room. Ryoko closes her eyes and plays her sprite ocarina. The golden rings appear around her character transporting her to the field where she promptly gates out. Back at Carmina Gadelica, Ryoko walks to a nearby bridge. She walks onto the stone bridge and walks over to the side of it. She rests her axe against the side of it and then leans against the bridge herself with her arms resting on the top of the bridge. She looks out into the night sky of Carmina Gadelica, the wind of the town blowing through her hair mildly making it flow slightly along with her more flowing parts of her outfit. She sits in quiet thought for a minute, the expression on her face a little saddened as she stares.

"Maybe Blackrose doesn't have a problem with me personally…today. But she doesn't like me and probably never will. I guess that is her right…I had obvious feelings for Kite…I still do kind of. He was the first guy to be nice to me for who I am instead of what I looked like…either in the game or in the real world. No other male aside from my father showed me such kindness like that."

Ryoko shakes her head and sighs.

"I know I should give up on him, but I can't. No matter how I try to put it out of my head it still remains. I know that him and Blackrose are inseparable, and I don't want to disrupt Kite's happiness after what he went through…but what do I do? How do I move on?"

Ryoko sits in quiet thought for a minute. She then smiles a little bit.

"I will start training seriously. I will become Blackrose's better and make her admit it. Maybe it won't change Kite's feelings, but it will at least settle the score once and for all between the two of us. I still can't believe she perpetuates this thing even after her and Kite started going together. I wonder if I can get that…oh what was his name… Ryzen to show me how he became as strong as he is."

Ryoko turns around and looks the other way, her arms supporting her weight as she leans slightly. Her quiet eyes staring out at the water and the lights.

"I wonder what the deal with that guy is. How someone could charge a dangerous looking creature like that without the ability to destroy it? It doesn't make sense…but he must have done something to take out that thing if it wasn't there when we returned."

She turns back around and takes her first position with her arms on the rail.

"Guess I'll log out for now. If I stay up all night I won't do very well in school tomorrow." Ryoko sighs to herself as she picks up her axe and walks to the Chaos Gate. She initiated the logout procedure and a few seconds later the player known as Terajima Ryoko was no longer in The World…for now.

That finishes the prologue and first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have any constructive thoughts, please feel free to review it to let me know your thoughts.


	3. Awakening

From hereon out, _italics_ will denote character thought. The reason I didn't put it in chapter 1 was I had problems with MS office that only recently have been resolved.

Yeah I know, I've changed the name of the fic several times. Sorry for any confusion.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Chapter 2: Awakening

The next day, Ryoko logged back in at roughly the same time she did the previous day. Ryoko's character manifests at the Carmina Gadelica Chaos Gate where she logged out. She looks around momentarily then shakes her head as in thought. After remembering the events of yesterday, she even wondered whether it would be a good idea to log in. After spending some time contemplating, Ryoko decided that the events of the day before were just a fluke. After all, one data bug couldn't mean that much right? As many possible fields that there were in The World, it can be expected that one or two data bugs would have been able to evade detection.

"_It was just a one time thing…right? Of course it is!"_

Ryoko nods her head reassuring herself of those thoughts and begins walking north towards the moonlit town square of Carmina Gadelica. Expanded from the first form of Carmina Gadelica, the town had a brilliant square in the center of which was a large fountain. A statue of a water dragon stands in the center of this fountain spraying water upwards in a nearly perfect vertical spray. A few droplets of water fall on Ryoko and her dress gets slightly wet on her shoulders. Ryoko couldn't help but marvel at the detail of the graphics that were placed in this game. Along the edge of the square were a number of NPC vendors selling generic items and a number of vacant stalls players can use to sell their own items. Black marble benches are scattered symmetrically throughout the square, most of which were occupied by players or the occasional NPC. At the square she noticed a few experience groups forming and a few other groups of players socializing and trading. Ryoko's nearly golden hair moved with the wind of the night sky as she looked around to see if anybody she knew was there. As her eyes scanned the square, she noticed someone sitting on the edge of the fountain that seemed to be meditating. The falling water from the fountain prevented her from immediately identifying who it was.

"_Meditation? Why would you log into The World just to meditate? Maybe that player is just away or something."_ Ryoko thought to herself as she held her axe in her left hand with her right hand at her side. Ryoko decided to get closer for a better look. The angelic heavy axe began walking around the fountain closer to the individual in question. As she went around an edge, the water was no longer obstructing her view. She knew who it was that was sitting there: Ryzen.

"_Wow…I didn't think I would find him so easily_." Ryoko thinks to herself smiling. She began to build up the courage to approach him. Ryoko always was very shy and awkward when it came to meeting new people, particularly males. Ryoko remembered how she constantly fumbled her actions around Kite when she first met him. After pausing a few feet away from Ryzen, she regained her composure and then walked up to him.

"Excuse me, Ryzen?" Ryoko said as sweetly as she could with a pleasant smile on her face. She figured her feminine charms may help her in getting the long arm's attention.

Ryzen makes no response. His eyes are closed and his face is pointed downward. Ryoko again thought that he may be away and waited a minute before speaking again.

"Ryzen? Are you there?" Ryoko asked again trying to sound as cute as she could. Ryzen's forehead crunches a little bit as if trying to remain focused on his meditation. It became clear to Ryoko that Ryzen was trying to channel out distractions from around him. Irritated, she decided to sit down next to Ryzen to see how he would react. Ryoko remembered something about human psychology she had read about in a library about how people tend to know when others are looking at them. Ryzen makes no initial reaction at first which didn't come as a surprise to Ryoko. It isn't long however before Ryoko's actions are noticed. No longer than two minutes into this act of hers did Ryzen lift his head up and look at her. He looked at Ryoko in the eyes for a moment quite blankly which made Ryoko feel a bit flustered. Her face turned slightly red as a natural reaction as she moved a few inches away from Ryzen.

"Can I help you?" Ryzen asks as if he were talking to any random person. Ryoko had a slight look of disappointment on her face. She then reaffirmed herself as she reminded herself that this was an online game and that people forget things quickly.

"Hey! We met yesterday in the dungeon." Ryoko said smiling sweetly.

"We did?" Ryzen moves his hand to his chin in thought for a moment. Ryoko looked at him perplexed, her eyes a bit wide with surprise that he was acting so uninterested.

"_How could he_ _forget what happened yesterday? He made Balmung of the Azure Sky look bad and then went against a data bug and somehow got away from it How do you just forget such an experience?._" Ryoko thinks to herself. Her wings arched upwards slightly to reflect her mood.

"Yeah! Dying Elusive Ice Wall! We met on the third floor and you helped my group get away from that really powerful monster! Thank you so very much for your assistance." Ryoko says with a voice that would melt the heart of any typical male. Ryzen's face doesn't change like Ryoko expected. There is an awkward silence for a moment which made Ryoko feel quite uncomfortable. Ryzen's voice was the first to break the silence.

"Oh yes, I remember now. You were with Balmung of the Azure Mouth. I apologize if I seem rude or inattentive; I just have a number of…important… short mails coming in that I must attend to as quickly as I can." Ryzen says while looking at Ryoko in the eyes. Ryzen's gaze is an unmoving and rarely blinking gaze. Ryoko felt a bit awkward being in such a stone cold gaze. It was as if he was staring straight into her soul. After a moment she shakes her head in reality getting her thoughts back in order which causes her game character to shake her head to a lesser extent.

"I don't think I ever caught your name." Ryzen says plainly.

"_Oh! That's right…I never did say my name to him."_ Ryoko thinks to herself embarrassed that she had forgotten such a basic formality. She quickly stands up and looks at Ryzen in the eye.

"Oh how rude of me to call you by name without introducing myself! My name is Terajima Ryoko. Almost everyone just calls me Ryoko though." Ryoko says bending forward in a small bow slightly red faced that she had forgotten to introduce herself. She then rights herself smiling as pleasantly as ever while extending her hand. Ryzen makes no visible response. He still sits on the fountain's ledge.

"_I guess he is still going back and forth with the short mail. I wonder what could be so interesting."_ Ryoko contemplates to herself. She quickly snaps to attention as she notices Ryzen get up. He gets up by sliding his legs forward and then pulling himself off the edge of the fountain. A bit of water splashes on him from a player throwing a rock into the fountain nearby which causes him to have a look of displeasure on his face briefly. He then shrugs it off and stands erect looking at the heavy axe in her eyes. The movements were incredibly lifelike…even for the level of graphics that The World had.

"_Such a flowing movement. I have never seen any other player move their character so…perfectly. Not even Kite did something like that."_ Ryoko ponders drifting off into other thought again. She is briefly enchanted by his character's eerily fluid movements until Ryzen's voice wakes her up again.

"So what is it that you need…Ryoko?" Ryzen asks with his arms folded across his chest. The amulet he wears glowed faintly in Carmina Gadelica's night sky. As Ryoko opens her mouth to speak, Ryzen's character flashes green for a split second. A brief look of pleasure covers Ryzen's face appears but quickly returns to his normal expression.

"Oh! Yes…I was just wondering, could you teach me how to fight as well as you do? I was quite impressed with how you handled yourself against that monster. I want to become better at this game and if at all possible, could you show me?" Ryoko says in her sweet voice while looking at Ryzen with her deep blue eyes. Ryoko was determined to get a response out of him.

Ryzen thinks for a moment, shrugs, and then puts his hand at his side and looks at Ryoko with that cold gaze of his.

"You are level 45…I am level 60. You and I play two different classes. I am sorry, but I do not think that I would be the best person to teach you how to play and fight." Ryzen says as soberly as he could. This gets Ryoko flustered as she tightens her hands forming fists and puts them at her side. Her wings arch upwards again. She calms herself quickly knowing that aggression is not the way to persuade someone effectively.

"It's just that you handled yourself so well! Would you at least let me party with you? It would be fun to go through dungeons with such a skilled player and you really seem like an interesting person to become friends with." Ryoko says as pleasantly as she can despite her agitation. Ryzen's face turns to one of disgust briefly but quickly goes back to his normal expression.

"Level 55."

Ryoko's expression turns to one of confusion. She had no idea what Ryzen meant. Her wings relax a bit as they lower from the arch.

"_Maybe he meant to send that through short mail instead of the public channel."_ Ryoko thinks to herself.

"I'm sorry? I don't understand."

"Get your character up to level 55. Solo. I am NOT going to waste my time to power level somebody. If you can do that, then I'll consider partying with you." Ryzen says in a cold voice. Ryoko's face quickly turns to one of disappointment. The open hostility made her almost want to cry, especially since she was being as polite as she could. Her character's eyes water slightly which Ryzen notices. As he bends his head down to look at her face, Ryoko tilts her head down to hide her current state. Ryzen crosses his arms over his chest and looks at Ryoko.

"I am sorry that I am sounding rude, but you would be surprised how many people try to pull stunts like that being sweet only to try and get something out of me. Especially since half the female characters seem to be either old men or little boys who are too lazy to earn their power. To be honest…I am involved in something that could be very dangerous for you. It may be best that you keep away from me." Ryzen says in his normal voice.

"_Dangerous? It's just a game…the worst thing that can happen is getting PKed, but that really isn't that big of a deal. It's not like you lose anything other than progress and time in an area. It isn't like getting PKed causes you to lose items or money like people say it used to. I guess I see why he reacted so meanly…Low level people often get me to help them similarly by making me feel wanted or guilty and then leave after accomplishing whatever it was without saying anything…not even a thank you." _Ryoko thinks to herself. Her expression lightens up and she looks at Ryzen with a hopeful expression on her face, the forming tears now gone.

"So ten levels." Ryoko says with a bit of determination in her voice; this time it was Ryzen who had a look of surprise which made Ryoko smile a bit.

"What?" Ryzen says not sure how to react.

"Well you said to gain ten levels and then you would let me play with you! I accept your challenge!" Ryoko said smiling. She knew the ten level thing was an obvious brush off, but she decided that she would prove herself; both to herself and this person.

"Really…" Ryzen says unimpressed.

"Yes! I will show you what I can do." Ryoko says smiling.

"If you have that determination, then why do you need me to show you how to be a better fighter?" Ryzen asks looking at Ryoko with a bemused grin.

"Well…there is only so much I can learn on my own, you know? That and the fact that I like playing with other people. What is the point of playing an online game only to solo, right?" Ryoko says smiling. Ryzen opens his mouth to speak when something causes him to pause. A few seconds later, he turns to walk off leaving Ryoko confused.

"What is it? Are you leaving?" Ryoko asks.

"Yes. Something extremely important has come up. Do not follow me. Besides, you have your own things to do." Ryzen says in a sober tone as he turns and walks away.

"Hey! Let me give you my member address!" Ryoko shouts a bit annoyed that he would just start walking off like that. What could be so important in a game to pull one away like that?

"Accomplish your goal then I will allow that. I don't have time!' Ryzen says as he runs off. Ryoko noticed that his character was running normally now. Ryoko lays her axe on the side of the fountain and then sits down with her hands in her lap.

"_What is with that guy? First he engages that monster yesterday and now this. He is so strange, but at the same time, there is something about him."_ She contemplates. Ryoko stands up after thinking for a brief time and picks up her axe.

"_Well if I am to gain ten levels, I guess I had better get started."_

Ryoko begins walking back towards the Chaos Gate. She looks at her collection of member addresses as she walks. The only active players on her list were Kite and Balmung. Both of them had set their availability status to occupied. Ryoko shakes her head seeing few of the people that she knew online.

"_I bet Kite and Balmung are partying together. If Blackrose is on she is probably with them as well. Oh well! Ryzen did say to do it solo, so maybe I can learn something on my own!"_ Ryoko says affirming herself. The heavy axe approaches the Chaos Gate and begins to select random area words to find an appropriately leveled area.

"_If I choose a stronger area and fight well, then I can level more quickly than I would being more conservative…I just have to try and push myself!"_

Ryoko sits there clicking on the random. Various fields appear as an ever moving swirl of arcane circles and symbols of yellow light flow in the area immediate of the Chaos Gate.

A strange player approaches her. He appeared to be a higher leveled twin blade. His black hair, red armor, and standard character model appear at first to be no different than any other twin blade, but his behaviors would soon prove otherwise.

"Ah my beloved!" The twin blade shouts at Ryoko while she searches for an appropriate field. Ryoko doesn't realize that the twin blade was even speaking to her and pays the twin blade no mind until she is glomped by him. Ryoko falls to the ground with the other twin blade hugging her character tightly. Ryoko pulls away, jumps up, and stares at the player strangely when the player jumps up and grabs her hand.

"At long last, I, Kula, have found you! I knew that unlike Arpeegy's beloved, you actually exist!" The twin blade shouts. Ryoko sits there for a moment confused.

"_What the…"_ Ryoko thinks to herself until she realizes the guy is one of those online perverts. As Kula leaps to hug her again she quickly swats him in the head with the flat of her axe. Kula falls straight down vertically and lands on his head with a massive lump forming where the axe hit him. This stuns Kula briefly. Ryoko noticing her chance to get away quickly chooses the next field that pops up.

"Lambda: Beautiful Sweltering Scent" Ryoko says hurriedly trying to get out before the strange player got back up. However, as Ryoko begins to disappear, Kula is standing on one knee with his arms stretched out dramatically.

"I will see you soon my beloved!" Kula shouts standing up. Ryoko sighs as the rings encircle her character to take her away to the field.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Lambda: Beautiful Sweltering Scent

The heavy axe appears in what appears to be a typical rainy grass field at first. The sky is dark as thunder can be occasionally heard in the distance. Ryoko looks up her area information and find that it is a Level 49 Darkness elemental field.

"At least being in a darkness field will make me that much stronger…I just hope I can last against the monsters! " Ryoko says smiling to herself as she remembers that her character was of the darkness element. She always found it unusual how her character never had any of the elemental tattoos that other had. Putting that thought aside, Ryoko decides to test the field's monsters before heading into the dungeon. As she begins to walk to the north however, she heard Kula shout.

"Beloved! Do not go far without me! I shall protect you against the vicious monsters here!"

Ryoko has a sweatdrop run down the side of her head. She sighs turning around to see Kula with a sizable bandage over his head where Ryoko whacked him.

"Please mister Kula, I wish to play alone right now." Ryoko says as politely as she could despite her agitation at Kula.

"But beloved! I have seen you in my dreams and written of you in poetry! After seeing the angel of my dreams, I cannot sit by and let you escape me again!"

"What a nut…" Ryoko says to herself as she holds her axe in her right hand and rests her left hand against her waist. Kula hears her remark and pokes his face towards her.

"Yes my love? What is it?" Kula asks in a tone that would make the voice of Piros sound bearable.

Ryoko notices a nearby group of monsters approaching the two and she gets an idea. She grins as she reaches behind her back and into her inventory to grab a The Moon scroll that she conveniently had from exploring lower leveled fields on her own.

"Uhm…well…you see…I said…Mumyn Lei!" Ryoko shouts as she holds the scroll forward releasing it's magic. A white arcane circle appears over Ryoko's head as Kula becomes covered in slowly moving energy causing his character to fall asleep.

"My belove…ed….zzz…"

Kula drifts off into a sleep as two Ark Princes and a Mad Witch approach. Ryoko runs off jumping onto a nearby crate and then using her wings to glide away from the monsters. As the maiden is out of range, the three monsters turn to Kula and begin to attack him. Ryoko nods to herself as she runs off and approaches a magic portal.

"_Now that he is taken care of, its time for me to strengthen myself!" _Ryoko thinks to herself as she grips her axe with both hands. She boldly walks towards the magic portal as it begins to rotate and convulse rapidly. Ryoko's confidence begins to disperse as she sees a massive form begin to appear. A Dalaigon Anec manifests in front of Ryoko with a tremendous roar that sends tremors down her spine. The beast is three times Ryoko's height as the massive creature's scaled body begins to walk towards her. It spreads its ragged wings out and opens its mouth gathering a mass of shadow energy.

"_I can't beat this!"_ Ryoko thinks to herself as she turns to run away from it. After running a distance, she turns back to see the beast's head lunge forward releasing its shadow breath attack with Ryoko just out of range. Ryoko stops and turns around to face it.

"_Kite never ran away when he was faced with strong enemies. Blackrose would just laugh at me. I have to at least try. If I die then nothing will be lost."_ She thinks to herself. The Dalaigon charges her and before she can react, the beast bites into her arm causing substantial damage. Ryoko runs to a side as the creature begins to accumulate energy for another breath attack.

"Ol Repth" Ryoko says as she uses her wings to float in the air briefly while casting the spell. The light covers her character healing some of the damage she received. She prepares to cast the spell again to finish healing but she notices the beast lowering its jaws. Ryoko barely has time to evade the breath attack by running to the side of the beast again. She runs at the beast from the side with her axe in both hands as she prepares one of her character's innate elemental abilities. Shadow energy accumulates in the blade of her axe as Ryoko gets in range of the beast.

"Ani Basher!" She shouts as the energy covers the blade and forms a ring around her. She spins the blade around gathering momentum and then brings it down vertically on the beast's hind leg. As she strikes however, a black shell of energy appears around it nullifying the damage.

"_Darkness Tolerance! So I can't use my character's inherent darkness abilities"_ Ryoko sighs to herself. Ryoko quickly pulls her axe back and swings horizontally with a standard physical attack. The axe cuts into the Dalaigon's scales only barely as a small trickle of blood comes out. The beast quickly rotates around to Ryoko and slashes with its frontal claws landing on her torso knocking her back. The beast raises its other claw to swing but Ryoko holds her axe above her to parry the shadow covered claw. Ryoko is still knocked back a few feet due to her lower level. The beast quickly runs on Ryoko to finish her but Ryoko drops her axe and leaps into the air using her wings to gain height to evade the snapping jaws of the beast. She drops vertically and lands on the beast's head with her feet causing minimal damage but stuns it briefly. She picks up her axe again and calls out another move.

"Axel Pain!" She shouts as she rotates herself slashing horizontally with the blade of her axe twice. Both attacks land on the side of the stunned Dalaigon's face as it releases a howl of pain. The gash inflicted is substantial and causes extra bleeding damage. Ryoko smiles and raises her axes over her head to inflict a vertical cleave on the beast's neck but the stun wears off and the Dalaigon violently rends into Ryoko with its claws. Ryoko is caught completely by surprise as she is ripped into three times by the beast's claws. On the third hit Ryoko is knocked down and as she falls to the ground she sees a fourth claw fly through the air that would have killed her had it connected. She moves to get up but she has to roll away to dodge the beast thrusting its jaws forward. The Dalaigon bites into the ground where Ryoko's head as and gets a mouthful of dirt as Ryoko finally gets up. She quickly changes her torso armor from her Spirit Armor to a Priest's Stole that she received long ago from Kite when she invited him to the Sigma server field Generous Bemused Virgin. Ryoko then holds her axe in her left hand and extends her right hand with her palm facing forward. She gathers thunder elemental energy in her hand as the beast turns to charge Ryoko again.

"GiRai Rom!

An electrical whirlwind erupts on the beast locking it in place. The Dalaigon howls in pain as its form becomes ripped into by the electricity. Bolts rip into its scales and the winds blow them away. The words Elemental Hit appear on Ryoko's screen. Weakened and near death, the Dalaigon accumulates energy in its mouth for one last breath attack. Ryoko not wasting time runs up to the beast as it lowers its head to release its attack.

"Take this!" She shouts as she prepares her attack. Ryoko's wings are arched vertically again. She enjoyed the close battle testing her abilities.

She holds her axe behind her as she twirls with it in an almost dance-like maneuver and brings it down vertically and diagonally across the Dalaigon's head. It howls in pain as the axe cuts straight into its flesh. The Dalaigon turns gray and falls to the ground with an earth rumbling thud that knocks Ryoko off her feet. As the corpse fades away and Ryoko gets back up, a blue treasure chest appears. Remembering what happened last time, she uses a fortune wire on the chest and waits a minute after the bar fills up.

Item Acquired: Dragon's Fangs.

Ryoko smiles upon seeing the rare crafting item appear. She places the teeth in her inventory and puts her Spirit Armor torso back on. After this, she levitates in the air briefly as she casts Ol Repth several times restoring her health to full. Satisfied with her ability in the field, she walks towards the dungeon's entrance. As she walks toward the dungeon, she hears an already too familiar voice from behind her.

"Belovvveeed! I am coming to help you my love!"

A sweatdrop appears over Ryoko's head as she hurriedly runs towards the dungeon's entrance. An Ark Prince approaches her but she continues to run barely evading a spell exploding behind her.

"_That guy is nuts!"_ Ryoko sighs to herself as the stairway into the dungeon appears. Theentrance is a stone stair way covered at three sides by gray stone walls. The walls have symbols on them as two torches burn perpetually despite the fact that the field had rain falling constantly. Ryoko walks down the stairwell quickly nearly falling due to her axe's weight unbalancing her steps. As she hits the bottom step; she feels an eerie sensation over her entire body. She doesn't know how to describe it, but she felt as though coming into this dungeon would be a bad idea, and not just on account of the fact there was a crazy stalker following her. Ryoko dismisses the thought as nothing as she continues in.

As she enters, she looks at the surroundings. The dungeon appeared to be a tomb as aged stone walls covered in blue symbols make up the first room of the dungeon. The floor is made of large stone tiles with the same markings as those on the wall. As Ryoko walks towards the door leading deeper in, she hears her stalker.

"Angel of my dreams! Wait for me!"

The voice was enough to make her cringe. She wanted nothing to do with this person. Ryoko runs into the next room before she has to deal with him again. The room is a larger version of the first with the same style. In the center of it a magic portal waits for its challenger. In the sides of the room are skeletons and a pair of chests waiting to be investigated. As Ryoko enters the room, the stone door closes behind her. She is soon satisfied by a loud crashing noise as Kula runs face first into the door. Smiling, she approaches the portal and awaits the enemy party to appear. She holds her axe in front of her with both hands as the portal convulses rapidly. A few seconds later, two Mad Witches appear. They both begin casting MeGan Rom as Ryoko runs towards run of them. When in range, Ryoko swings her axe at the nearest witch stunning it with the force of the blow. The blow knocks off over half of the witch's health as she begins to run from Ryoko. Ryoko smiles and follows intending to finish the creature off, but the other witch's MeGan Rom finishes casting as Ryoko is surrounded in a tornado of sand and stone. The spell does substantial damage to her as the other witch begins to cast again.

"_They will kill me if I stay trapped in spells like this. I must find a way to stop these enemies!_" The maiden thinks to herself as she looks in her inventory while trapped in the storm. To her luck, she finds a The Lovers scroll. She grasps it tightly in her right hand as she holds it towards the full health witch.

"Miu Lei!" Ryoko calls out as the scroll turns into light. The light forms a white circle over the witch's head as hearts appear around it indicating that the witch is charmed. As Ryoko turns to face the other witch, she is surrounded in sand and rocks again causing her damage as the witch finishes its MeGan Rom spell. Annoyed, Ryoko leaps in the air and uses her wings to glide over to the uncharmed witch after the spell. The witch turns to run when it is pelted by a MeGan Rom spell. The spell does no damage to the monster due to its tolerance, but it locks her in place for Ryoko to finish it off. The charmed witch begins casting again as Ryoko swings her axe over her head towards the normal witch. The witch parries her attack but Ryoko quickly pulls her axe back and swings horizontally cleaving into the witch's frail body. The witch turns gray with a scream of pain as the charmed witch's spell wears off. Ryoko backs up unsure if the spell will affect her and she runs towards the charmed witch. The charmed witch regains her senses, but it is too late.

"Axel Pain!" Ryoko calls out as she swings her axe around horizontally while twirling in place for two rotations. Both hits connect as the witch drops dead. As the second witch dies, a golden pillar of light briefly appears around her indicating that she leveled up to 46. Ryoko's health and spell points are automatically restored when the light fades. She smiles as she realizes she is one step closer to finishing her challenge. When the body fades, the doors open. Kula quickly runs in and starts heading for Ryoko.

"That was dangerous my love! You should never have gone in there without me!"

Agitated, Ryoko swats Kula with the broad side of her axe again and shouts at him.

"GO AWAY!" Ryoko screams. Kula shakes his head, jumps up, and grabs Ryoko's hand looking into her eyes.

"But my soulmate, don't you see? We were meant to be together! The signs are all laid out! Even the hunters know I have been searching for you all my life!" Kula says in his scratchy voice. Ryoko pulls away and turns to run into the next room. Kula tries to glomp her but misses and lands on the stone tile leaving an impression of his face in the stone. Taking the opportunity to get away, she runs into the next room.

The room is extremely small and contains a chest and a crate on both sides. Ryoko thinks about taking the chests, but she proceeds not wanting to give Kula the time to catch up with her. As she enters the doorway in front of her, she gets that eerie feeling again as her character feels a brief wind flow behind her. Turning around expecting Kula, she holds her axe forward and prepares to swing when she sees nothing.

"_This is getting so very creepy…maybe that weird guy is just making me on edge."_ Ryoko thinks to herself as she walks through the next room. It is similar to the previous room but with nothing in it. Ryoko proceeds into the room afterwards as shivers go down her spine. Partially flesh covered skeletons hang in cages attached to the ceiling. The skeletons emit a smell that makes Ryoko's character automatically hold her nose with her left hand while holding her axe in her right. She quickly exits the room seeing nothing else of interest into a room similar to the first room with a portal. The door closes behind her as the portal begin to convulse. Ryoko runs up to the portal and it rotates and contracts until an Ark Prince and two Mad Witches appear. Ryoko quickly runs up between the three monsters and swings her axe around.

"Axel Pain!"

Ryoko twists around with her axe in hand cutting deep into the three monsters. When the skill finishes, she brings her axe down vertically on one of the Mad Witches killing it. Ryoko turns to attack the other witch when the Ark Prince holds its hands out. It grunts Rip Maen as the first Arc Witch comes back to life. Ryoko is struck by a MeGan Rom spell as she swings her axe to kill the second witch. The wind erupts around her causing moderate damage when she realizes the first Arc Witch was back.

"I killed you already!" Ryoko shouts annoyed. She turns to kill the first again but is pelted in the back by the Ark Prince's coffin attack. As she staggers forward, her damaged wings shed feathers. The heavy axe's look turns to one of pure malice as she runs up to the Ark Prince and swings her axe at it vertically. The Ark Prince is stunned briefly but regains its stance and throws its coffin at Ryoko. This time Ryoko ducks as it flies over her head and crashes into the remaining Mad Witch. Without it's coffin, the Ark Prince runs trying to get past Ryoko and into its coffin but Ryoko grips her axe at the bottom of the handle and swings around horizontally gaining momentum and force.

"Take this!" Ryoko shouts as she swings her weapon at the Ark Prince's midsection. When the attack connects, the Ark Prince is literally cleaved in half. Without its coffin to hide into, its defense is almost nonexistent. The Ark Prince's body turns gray and fades away. As the heavy axe turns around to finish off the last witch, a MeGan Rom spell erupts on her sending her character flying into the air. Ryoko lands on her back as the Mad Witch thrusts its staff at Ryoko. The Witch had run out of spell points having cast the spell after a resurrection. Ryoko parries the attack with her axe and hops up swinging her axe in a circle around her. The witch's health drops by half from the heavy attack and it begins to run. Seeing this, Ryoko swings her axe in a circle twice and releases her grip on it. The flying blade cuts into the Mad Witch's back as it shrieks in pain and fades away into nothingness. Ryoko walks over to collect her axe and then move on into the next room before Kula can catch up. As she exits the room, she feels the creepy wind on her wings. Turning around she barely sees a flash of orange and then nothing.

"_Okay SOMETHING is here. What could it be?!_" Ryoko says to herself as she takes a step back. She hears a rock fall in front of her and she jumps swinging her axe in the empty air in front of her. Seeing nothing, she gets her composure and starts to walk into the next room. Ryoko hears footsteps behind her as the red armored twin blade enters the room she was just in. Noticing a number of barrels in the corner nearby, she jumps behind them and ducks down behind them folding her wings over her chest to keep them out of sight. Between the cracks of the barrels, she sees Kula run into the room she is in.

"Beloved?! Where are you?!" Kula shouts as he runs into the next room. Ryoko hears the twin blade go down the stairs. Ryoko stands up satisfied that Kula was no longer an issue.

"_What a crazy person! I wonder if Kite ever thought of me to be annoying like that when I was chasing after him in the dungeons…" _Ryoko sighs to herself. She then smiles to herself.

"_At least I was only trying to help him instead of chase after him swearing love after seeing him for the first time. I am just afraid that I was more of a burden to him the whole time."_ The angelic heavy axe says frowning after her second thought. She gets out from behind the barrels and goes into the next room. In here she sees a stairway leading to the second level. Cobwebs are formed above it as a spider walks among the webs.

"They spare no detail." Ryoko says as she descends the steps. As she enters the second level, she finds that nothing is different. She is now in a small entry room with one doorway leading out. Peeking around the corner, she does not see Kula, but faintly hears his voice coming from deeper within.

"My love! Where have you gone this time?"

Ryoko quickly darts into the room south, and then the one to the east. Ryoko sees something out of the corner of her eye again as she turns around bringing her axe forward. Nothing is there. She sighs to herself as she relaxes her stance and continues into the next room. Ryoko is pleased to see another stairway downwards.

"So very easy." The heavy axe says smiling to herself as she descends the stairwell. She walks into the dimly lit bottom level as she notes one doorway to the west. This time, Ryoko reaches into her inventory and pulls out a fairy orb. Throwing it into the air, she quickly has a map.

"One portal that I have to go through and then I think I can reach the Gott Treasure." Ryoko says to herself relaxed. Ryoko's relaxation quickly fades as she hears Kula's voice from above.

"Beloved?! Is that you? I am coming!" Kula's voice rings out as footsteps could be heard approaching her.

Flustered, the heavy axe runs through the room to the west and then into the room to the south where the portal rested. The portal convulses rapidly as Ryoko approaches it and a treasure chest appears. The chest is a normal wooden one as the heavy axe runs up to it. She bends over resting her axe on the ground briefly. Her wings flutter in anticipation as she opens the chest.

Item Acquired: Speed Charm.

Disappointed, Ryoko pockets the scroll as she picks up her axe. Ryoko stands up straight again as she sees something in the corner of her eye. It was Kula. He stands directly behind her smiling.

"I liked that view just now my beloved! You are finally coming around!"

Ryoko clenches her fist and closes her eyes in anger briefly. She felt insulted that he would gaggle over her character's body like that. She relaxes and faces Kula sticking her tongue out at him.

"Go away! For the last time, I do not want to have anything to do with you…you…you pervert!" She calls out flustered. Kula smiles and shakes his head as he walks towards her. Ryoko sighs and runs to the room to the east. She finds that she is in the Gott room. A stone idol of Wyrneck floats behind a golden treasure chest suspended by golden rings of energy. Ryoko approaches the chest.

"_I wonder what is inside!"_ Ryoko says as she kneels over to the chest forgetting Kula briefly. She always felt a sense of accomplishment whenever she made it to a Gott room regardless of whether she was alone or with a party. It had been a while actually; the last time she had seen a Gott room, she was in a low leveled area that she had been exploring for the sake of checking out the different area types. She couldn't remember what was in the chest, but because she couldn't remember it she figured it wasn't anything significant. The last time she was in a high leveled Gott room, she was with Kite. Kite had taken the items and then used a sprite ocarina. Ryoko sighed remembering this. She never did like the fact that Kite would take everything despite the fact there were other people who helped him get as far as he did. Ryoko ignored it at first believing that by letting Kite have his way, she would be able to gain his attention. After everything was over and Kite had openly started dating Blackrose, Ryoko quickly began to regret not voicing her opinion. A number of statistic increase books had gone to him uncontested.

Ryoko shook her head as she regained her attention. She realized she was starting to think selfishly.

"Kite needed those things to get stronger…to win his battles; to help his friend. Why should I selfishly think l had any right to contest my wants over his needs?" Ryoko says to herself halfway declaring the statement, halfway trying to convince herself. Ryoko finally opened the chest as a golden light shines from within it.

Items Acquired: Word of Power: Strength. Ivory Barrette, Ivory Barrette.

Ryoko shrieks in excitement upon seeing the rare item appear. With that book, she could increase her physical attack attribute by three permanently. Ryoko felt a since of vindication now that she finally had one of the stat increasing books to call her own. Ryoko quickly pockets the three items and stands up. As she turns to leave, Kula was standing there waiting.

"Congratulations my love! You earned everything in the chest." Kula says smiling at her. Ryoko sighs and stands to face Kula. Her wings arch upwards reflecting her agitated face.

"I am so very sorry, but I do not know you. Why do you speak such words to me? You are really quite scary following me this entire field."

Kula frowned at this. He fingered his Two Together twin blades nervously as he looks at Ryoko. As he opens his mouth to speak, the screen begins to flash and flicker. Both Kula and Ryoko look around unsure of what is going on as the flashing and flickering begin to occur more frequently. In a flash, the two disappear and are transported to another area.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The two are transported to a mysterious field. It looks like a ruined wasteland as various objects and pieces of buildings float in the air. The sky is an array of various colors as lightning flies through the sky.

"Where are we?!" Ryoko says as she looks around trying to figure out what is going on.

"I do not know beloved. But so long as we stand together, nothing can defeat us!"

Ryoko had to sigh heavily. That was the corniest thing she had heard ever since she met Piros. A green ripple of light appears in the sky as the game's reality begins to bend. A being then appears through the ripple in a flash of data and light. It is Skeith.

"_What kind of monster is that?"_ Ryoko thinks to herself not recognizing Skeith. The only phase she ever saw was Corbenik's final form, and the link between the two was not obvious to her. Ryoko holds her axe forward as Kula brings his blades to bear.

"I will show you my beloved! I will defend you and your honor!" Kula shouts as he charges Skeith. Ryoko begins to run up to Skeith to attack when Skeith holds it' hand out and its staff appears in its hand. Ryoko's eyes widen a bit as she realized that this was what she had been feeling uneasy about this whole time. Kula was not the only one stalking her. Ryoko takes a step back and pulls a sprite ocarina out. She begins to play the song of the ocarina, but nothing happens.

"_It failed!?"_ Ryoko thinks to herself. Skeith looks at Ryoko and its shoulders shake up and down as if it were laughing at her. Annoyed, Ryoko runs at Skeith with her axe. Kula closes melee range and leaps in the air to strike it. Skeith effortlessly parries the attack and in the blink of an eye strikes Kula three times with its staff.

"Pha Repth!" Kula says as he heals himself. Blue light covers his avatar as the damage is restored. He then turns to Ryoko who was charging Skeith and shouts to her.

"Let me handle this my love!" Kula shouts. Ryoko leaps in the air to strike Skeith's head, but Skeith holds its hand out and catches Ryoko's axe mid air. It yanks it out of her grasp and throws it clear across the field as Ryoko falls out of the air. Skeith's three eyes glow faintly as Ryoko's character becomes paralyzed.

"_No! I am paralyzed! What kind of monster is this?! It is so strong, even for this area's level!"_

Kula flies through the air swinging his blades again but Skeith swings its staff while Kula attacks. Kula parries the attack, but the staff deletes Kula's blades on contact. Shocked, Kula backs up and starts casting a spell, but Skeith grabs Kula's face and an explosion of green light occurs. A blue shell appears around Kula and shatters into fragments. Kula's eyes widen to a panic as he stares at his hands where his twin blades were.

"My precious blades! How could you!" Kula shouts at Skeith. Skeith phases in front of Kula and hits him with its staff knocking him off balance. While Kula falls, Skeith's staff appears behind him. Kula is paralyzed and is soon levitated in the air as the staff rises off the ground.

"No! I cannot be defeated like this in front of my one true love!" Kula shouts as he tries to break free. Ryoko can't help but have a sweatdrop appear over her head as she listens to Kula's corny line.

"_When will this paralysis wear off?!"_ Ryoko sighs to herself agitated. She frantically tries to get her character to move but to no avail.

Skeith holds it's hand out as a red circle of five long polygons appear around it. Ryoko's eyes widen as she realizes what is going on.

"It…it…it's the same thing as Kite's special ability!" Ryoko shouts in horror. The polygons begin to rotate as more rings of smaller polygons appear within the first ring and energy accumulates. Kula squirms trying to break free but to no avail. Skeith finishes charging the drain and releases its energy into Kula; in a flash of light, the beams penetrate into Kula's form. Kula lets loose an inhuman scream as his consciousness is pulled into the game while his character becomes drained. Kula falls to the ground flickering after the drain has been completed. He looks at Ryoko with a sad look in his eyes.

"Forgive me…my angel." Kula says as his character's remaining data shatters into nothingness. Ryoko's eyes are those of horror as the paralysis finally wears off. The seriousness of the situation fully dawned upon her.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Ryoko shouts as she runs from Skeith. All composure was gone now. Witnessing the drain reminded her of the final battle with Corbenik and when the creature released its drain heart. Ryoko is tripped up by a rock and falls to the ground somersaulting and landing on her back. Her wings go limp as they are crushed underneath the heavy axe's body. As Ryoko stands up, the staff appears behind her as she becomes levitated off the ground. She clenches her fists and tries to break herself free.

"No! You can't!" Ryoko shouts as Skeith holds its hand out. The red circle forms and begins to rotate. Ryoko is panicking now. She shakes and trembles both in real life and in the game as she remembered her brief experience data drained during the fight with Corbenik. When it happened then, three beams of data flew at her faster than she could react and entered her body immediately pulling her mind into the game. At the same time she felt her body and soul being drained into Corbenik, she felt something enter her. Ryoko had never talked about this with anybody else; nobody else said anything about having something enter them while being drained and it didn't affect her after the fight. For the longest time, she believed that that experience was a nightmare and not a reality. Now all doubt is banished as Ryoko looks death itself in the eyes.

"_This is it…Kite where are you? I need you now…this must be one of those phases you fought so long ago. The phases that Mistral told me about…I never understood how serious it was until now."_ Ryoko thinks to herself with tears forming in her eyes. Skeith's drain finishes charging as the beams are released. The green and blue tendrils tear into Ryoko's character, but the sensation is different than when she was data drained at the fight with Corbenik. She could feel herself slowly being pulled in instead of instantaneously.

Ryoko closed her eyes not wanting to see what was happening. She could feel something being pulled out of her character, even her soul. But it was painless this time. A black sphere of data comes out of Ryoko and into Skeith's hand. As Ryoko's essence becomes within the game, she begins to breathe the air of the field instead of the air of reality; the damp and polluted air almost sickening her. As the sphere is finished being pulled out of her, Ryoko feels a sharp pain as the drain begins to link with her own data and consciousness. Since she wasn't protect broken, the link is slow to form instead of near instantaneous like with Kula.

"No!!!" Ryoko screams as she feels the pain. It was more intense this time than the fight with Corbenik. Ryoko felt as though knives were going into her body and slowly ripping her open. Ryoko hears a sound as though someone were gating in. Footsteps are heard running towards her but she can't bring herself to open her eyes to look. She hears a voice call out.

"Data Shield!"

A buzzing is heard and then a humming sound as the pain stops for Ryoko. She slowly opens her eyes to see a figure holding his hands out. Her vision is too blurry to make out who it is. He levitates off the ground slightly from using the skill. In front of his hands, a large ring of polygons similar to those of the data drain circles float in the air. The polygons create a purple field of energy that block Skeith's data drain and deflect it harmlessly. Skeith's drain fades as the staff disappears from behind Ryoko and back into Skeith's hand. She falls to the ground unable to move.

"Kite..? Is that you? Did you come to help me?" Ryoko asks quietly. The figure doesn't turn around.

"Terajima Ryoko. Stay out of this. You have gone through enough." A familiar voice replied. Ryoko realized who it was. It was Ryzen. Ryoko shakes her head and sits up. She felt very fuzzy as she moved. It was all surreal. Ryzen begins to walk towards Skeith with malice in his eyes. Skeith's staff has the black sphere of data in it; the sphere is rotating rapidly and convulsing as though something were trying to break free from within it.

"Wait! It's dangerous! You can die!" Ryoko shouts. She tries to stand up but still feels so disoriented from the drain that she falls back down. She sits up and tries to watch Ryzen but her vision blacks out periodically. Ryzen continues to walk towards Skeith.

"_What happened to me…what is happening to me?"_ Ryoko's mind becomes swarmed with thoughts. This was all too much for her to handle at once.

"You bastard. I have sought you out ever since you took them away, and now you are before me. I will make you pay!" Ryzen shouts as he holds his fist out in rage. Ryzen extends his other hand as his spear appears in his hand.

"Now give them back! Give them all back!" Ryzen screams as he leaps into the air at Skeith with his spear forward. The attack connects as Skeith becomes pushed back slightly.

"You will pay for your crimes! Burn in hell!" Ryzen shouts with anger Ryoko had never seen from him in her short acquaintanceship with him. Ryzen leaps in the air and his spear glows changing form as the spear point shifts and rotates into one side of the end to function more like a heavy axe.

"Vak Crush!" Ryzen shouts as the blade becomes covered in flame. He swings it down on Skeith smashing into the creature and sending it into the ground with a crash. Skeith counterattacks by charging Ryzen and swinging its staff at him. The two continue to exchange blows as Ryoko holds her hand out. She had to help in whatever way she could.

"Ol Repth…" Ryoko says as her hand glows blue and the light covers Ryzen. Ryzen is distracted for a split second by this and he takes a blow penetrating straight into his chest knocking him through the air. He rights himself in mid air and grabs into the ground with his open clawed hand to regain control. Ryzen's armor has a substantial hole in it as his character's physical body can be seen. His weapon returns to its spear form as Ryzen charges for another attack. As Skeith turns to swing its weapon at Ryzen, the sphere of black data releases a flash of light and floats into the air. Skeith accordingly rises off the ground to a position next to the data as the data begins to take a shape. Ryoko stares at the data that had come out of her. Her wings flutter nervously as she watches this happen.

"_What, what, what, what is going on?!"_

The data expands and takes the shape of a woman. The woman appears to be slightly taller than Ryoko. Her long flowing black hair flowed in the unnatural winds of the area. At first the woman is nude but a solid black robe appears on her shortly after. The woman's red eyes stare out on the field and what is in it. The woman appears to be translucent, you can almost see through her. Ryzen watches the sky as his hands glow. Ryoko holds her hand out and opens her mouth to speak but Ryzen shouts angrily at Skeith.

"You bastard! You will not get away! GiVak Rom!" Ryzen yells as a fiery tornado appears around Skeith. The woman holds a hand out and the spell is deleted.

"What?!" Ryzen shouts. "Fine, I will take you out this way!" Ryzen shouts as he holds his hands in front of him. His amulet shines intensely as a ring of polygons begins to form. Ryoko is stunned upon seeing this.

"_He…he's like Kite! He has the same powers!"_

"Data..Dr..." Ryzen begins to say as the rings finish forming, but with another movement the woman knocks Ryzen back in an explosion of blue light interrupting the data drain. Ryzen's spell points become zero as the woman turns to Skeith. Skeith's eyes glow momentarily as Ryzen becomes paralyzed.

"Skeith…my loyal servant. Please hand me your staff." The woman says to Skeith in a commanding tone. Her voice sent chills down Ryoko's spine as she folds her wings over her chest. Skeith looks at its staff and it disappears from its hand and appears in the woman's hand.

"Yes, this will do. I will now reward you for your work resurrecting me." The woman says as she points the staff at Skeith. Data beams of various colors fly into Skeith as spines appear all over its body and an orange bladed scythe with a black pole appears in its hand. The horns on Skeith's head split into four and the beast's body comes together into a unified form instead of separate levitating pieces.

"Now find my granddaughter. I need her essence to truly reawaken and take my place again." The woman says disappearing into data and into a green rift. Skeith turns to Ryzen and Ryoko and holds its scythe towards them. The eyes on Skeith's head glow brightly as a creepy and deep disembodied voice is heard.

"You two are spared. For now."

With that, Skeith disappears in a method similar to that of the woman. Ryoko's heart paced faster than ever before. Her body shakes in fear of what happened just now. She had just watched someone data drained and was nearly data drained herself again. Ryzen jams his spear in the ground and yells.

"Damn it! Get back here damn you! You will give them back!" Ryzen shouts as he pounds the ground with his armored hand. Ryoko looks at Ryzen confused. She is not sure what to say or why he seeks Skeith so desperately.

"Ryzen?" Ryoko asks innocently in her confused voice. Ryzen sighs and picks up his spear. He moves it behind him as it disappears into light. The long arm walks towards Ryoko finally paying her attention.

"Are you alright?" Ryzen asks casually." Ryoko's face turns to one of both anger and shock. How could he ask such a stupid question after what happened?

"What was that?! Who are you? How did you get those powers? What is going on?!" Ryoko shouts flustered as her wings flap angrily. She shakes her fists angrily as she sits on the ground. Ryzen glares at her and she calms down slightly.

"We should get out of here." Ryzen says as he turns to leave.

"One second…something is poking my back." Ryoko says annoyed as she reaches behind her. At first she thinks she thinks she went back to the real world, but as she feels what is poking her back, she feels feathers: soft feathers that seem to go into her back.

"Oh no! I…I am in this game!" Ryoko shouts as she kicks around. However she feels pain as she feels herself kick her desk in reality. Now Ryoko's face turns to one of confusion. She looks at Ryzen who now sighs. She tries to stand up, but since her lower half of her body is in reality and her upper half in the game, she fails. Her lower half of her body doesn't even respond. Ryoko covers her face with her hands as she begins to panic; feeling her hands covering her character's face make her feel even more worried.

"It will wear off. I think. Can you walk?" Ryzen asks with his arms folded across his chest. Ryoko shakes her head.

"No…it feels like the upper half of my body is in here, but the lower half is still in reality." Ryoko sighs as she looks at Ryzen.

"Well…this is different. I guess I have to carry you out." Ryzen says plainly.

"You don't have to…" Ryoko hurriedly says red faced as she holds her hands together in front of her. Despite that happened just now, she was just as shy as ever. "You say that it wears off? I can wait here until that happens. I don't want to trouble you."

Ryzen shakes his head.

"Skeith can come back. He will kill you if he catches you in this state. I cannot stand by and let another one be lost." Ryzen says as he walks over to Ryoko. Ryzen leans over to pick up the heavy axe. When she feels Ryzen's clawed hand touch her back, the clawed hand pokes into her back causing her a sensation of pain. Ryoko pulls herself away from Ryzen's.

"Ow!"

Ryzen's face turns to confusion as he looks at Ryoko.

"What is it?"

"Those…claws! They hurt! Really badly!" Ryoko shouts rubbing her back where the talons poked her.

"Sorry. I didn't even think of that" Ryzen sighs as he begins to take his arm plating off. Ryoko watches the armor come off revealing arms that were covered in scars. Ryoko began to think that he had been hunting Skeith for a while if his character was marred like that. Having done this, he leans over to pick her up again. Ryzen's hands were surprisingly gentle despite the scarring on the rest of his arm. Ryoko folded her hands over her stomach as she looks up at Ryzen.

"I am so very sorry for this Ryzen." Ryoko says blushing and trying to keep her composure. She felt very awkward being carried by the player she had just met, and with the events that just happened that feeling is doubled. She was still shaking from the traumatic experience she went through

"No…if I had gotten here sooner that may not have happened. I wasn't teleported quickly enough when I was told that Skeith reappeared." Ryzen says soberly. Ryzen turns to leave the area when Ryoko squirms a bit looking across the field.

"What is it?" Ryzen asks.

"My axe…that thing…you said it's name was Skeith?...It knocked it away from me at the beginning. Can we get it please?"

Ryzen nods as he carries the maiden over to where her weapon landed. He lays Ryoko down as he picks up the weapon and straps it to his back.

"I can carry it! I don't want to trouble you any more than necessary." Ryoko says a bit flustered.

"Really…remember you are the one that is temporarily in this game." Ryzen says as he pulls the axe off and hands it to Ryoko. Ryoko grips the weapon in Ryzen's hand. As soon as Ryzen releases it, the heavy weapon falls to the ground quickly. Apparently Ryoko's real life strength transferred to her character and she cannot effectively hold it in her current condition. Ryoko turns away red faced with embarrassment as Ryzen picks it up and straps it to his back again. Ryzen then picks up Ryoko and begins to walk towards the center of the field to gate out. She looks at Ryzen and tries to smile.

"Thank you so very much. For saving me." Ryoko says to the long arm. Ryzen sighs as he looks at Ryoko and then looks forward.

"Think nothing of it. I would have done the same for anyone being attacked by that thing."

Ryoko nods and looks at her character. Her character's arms covered in the silk felt very unusual to her. The dress was not something she was used to as it tightly wraps around her body to stay in place. Most awkward of all were her wings. Ryoko obviously would not have any idea how to use them in reality, but in The World and in her state, she seemed to be able to use them naturally as they move a bit from her subconscious thoughts. Ryoko turns her head to Ryzen.

"Are you sure this won't be permanent? I mean, so much pain when I was trapped and it seemed so surreal."

By the time Ryoko asks her question, Ryzen was in the center of the field and gates out to the dungeon where Ryoko was first sucked into the corrupted platform by Skeith.

"No, not for sure. But when I use certain abilities. I temporarily enter a similar state with my whole body."

"Really? So that explains why your movements were so fluid in Carmina Gadelica." Ryoko says a bit surprised. Ryzen simply nods.

"Yes…I wasn't sure how to react to a player talking to me in that state. I tried to make it look not too obvious but I guess I'm not a good actor." Ryzen says. Ryoko smiles a little at this. The small talk seemed to calm her down from the experience just now.

"How long does it take?"

"It varies…but no longer than a couple of hours." Ryzen says as he looks around in thought. Curious, Ryoko stares up at him.

"Hey, what is it?"

"Nothing…I am trying to figure out how to use a sprite ocarina while carrying you. Fighting the way out could be hazardous to you in your current state. Even if the pain is only to your game character, it feels just as painful" Ryzen says soberly and distantly. Ryoko reaches behind her and thinks of a sprite ocarina. Strangely enough, it appeared in her hand as she brings it forward and plays it. The two disappear from the dungeon and appear in the field. Ryzen shrugs.

"That works."

Ryoko smiles as the two gate out. As the two arrive in Carmina Gadelica, Ryoko looks around seeing if anyone she knew was around. She didn't want anyone to see her in this state.

"So what now?" Ryoko asks unsure of what to do now that they were out of danger.

"Do you have a player house that you can rest in?" Ryzen asks as he stands there with Ryoko in his arms. Ryoko shakes her head.

"No…they are very expensive, and I have not been able to save enough to buy one."

"I see…well I suppose I could let you rest in my house until your body and mind are in sync again." Ryzen sighs as he walks towards the back of the town. Ryoko fidgets nervously.

"I do not want to be a burden." Ryoko says shyly.

"Hey, you say that enough. It is nothing. It wouldn't be wise to leave you out here on your own with your current state and the characters that live in this game." Ryzen says. Ryoko shudders to think of what another Kula could do to her right now with little ability to defend herself. A thought crosses her mind as she looks at Ryzen with a strange look on her face.

"Who's to say you aren't going to do freaky things to me yourself?" Ryoko asks. Ryzen's eyes squint as he tries to keep his face straight.

"If that was my goal, don't you think I would have already taken you all the way to my house without asking you if you had your own first? You could ban me from your house if I did something while in it." Ryzen says with an insulted tone in his voice.

Ryoko is quiet as she realizes the logic. She felt bad that she questioned his character after what he did to keep her from getting data drained and exit the dungeon safely. Ryoko noticed as Ryzen walks towards what looked like an apartment in the midst of all the buildings of Carmina Gadelica. The black bricks and dim torches left little in terms of design or decoration as Ryzen's eyes glow briefly. The door opens and Ryzen walks in with Ryoko.

The interior of the house was nothing special. The first room had various shelves and tools in it similar to a blacksmith's workshop. A sizable forge being heated by perpetually burning green fire is built into the wall. The room is a substantial size as on the opposite side of the room, a plain bed on an iron frame rests. Ryzen walks to the bed and lays Ryoko down on it. Ryoko was grateful to finally be in a relaxed position. Ryzen pulls Ryoko's axe off his back and leans it on a nearby wall for her to take later. He then walks over to the forge and pulls a hammer and some black metal off a shelf. Ryoko uses her arms to slide herself into a position that was partially sitting up. The ashy air of the forge made her cough a bit.

"Ryzen…" Ryoko says. Ryzen turns around and looks at Ryoko annoyed.

"What?"

"What is all going on? That monster, the way you charge that thing, the powers that you have."

Ryzen sighs as he looks at Ryoko not answering her at first. Ryzen pulls off his damaged chain mail revealing a scarred body from when he was fighting in a reality state. Ryoko can't help but turn her head away with her face red from embarrassment. To her, this was reality even if only temporarily so she acted as though it were the real world.

"That monster killed several people that I know through its data drain in the game. Those people are very close to me, and those people are no longer with us; they are in comas in reality. The only way to get them back is for me to kill that monster…why are you so red faced?" Ryzen says seeing Ryoko turning away.

"It's nothing." Ryoko says still facing away. Her red face is easily noticeable.

"You know, this is just a game. What you see is in reality data…despite the fact of what that data can do to a person. There is no reason to be embarrassed over such a trivial thing. " Ryzen says soberly as he places the chain mail over the forge and it starts to heat up. Ryzen then puts the extra metal on the forge to heat it up as well.

"Yeah…I guess." Ryoko says turning around. Ryzen walks towards her and sits in a nearby chair.

"You should go to sleep." Ryzen says as he crosses his arms over his chest. "When you wake up, you will probably wake up in reality." Ryoko gets flustered as she shakes her fists.

"Sleep? After all that has happened? I am trapped in an online game!" Ryoko's agitated voice lets out. Ryzen just looks at her half-caringly.

"Yes. Sleep. Do you need help?" Ryzen says as he pulls a scroll out of his inventory. Ryoko shakes her head as she calms down.

"No, no! I will fall asleep on my own." Ryoko says quickly becoming quiet. Ryzen sits there with his eyes closed waiting for the forge as Ryoko tries to make herself comfortable enough to fall asleep. After failing to accomplish this, she puts herself in a sitting up position again.

"Ryzen, why do you fight alone knowing these things are so dangerous. Is there anyone who can help?"

Ryzen faces Ryoko and looks at her intently. The serious look on his face shows no emotion.

"For that same reason you just said. You saw what happened to your boyfriend. How can I knowingly allow other people to be exposed to such a risk?"

"That freak is not my boyfriend!" Ryoko snaps at Ryzen agitated at such a thought. Ryzen shrugs.

"Sorry. I suppose I shouldn't make such assumptions."

Ryoko is silent. She thought about how Kite would lead his party fighting data bugs and phases recklessly despite the risk of becoming in a coma themselves. Ryoko thought about how she herself didn't have any idea of what was really going on until the briefing for the battle against Corbenik. She saw data bugs infrequently and she never fought any other phase than Corbenik. Kite would always take Blackrose and another player. She had to understand Ryzen's point of view. Ryoko barely survived against a phase attack. Ryoko began to doubt herself. Should she quit the game that she put so much time and work into? Ryoko shakes her head while thinking of this. She decided to stay. She loved the game despite the danger within it.

Ryoko reached behind her and pulled out her Word of Power: Strength. She looked at it for a moment and then looked at Ryzen.

"Ryzen…I want to show my appreciation for you saving me. Please take this." Ryoko said as she offered the book to him. Ryzen just looked at her strangely.

"No."

"What?! Why not? You need to be as powerful as you can if you are going to fight that thing…especially if you are going to go without asking anyone for help. You may have been able to evenly fight it before, but now it's stronger!" Ryoko nearly yells remembering how the old party always would fork over stat increase books to Kite for him to use on himself or Blackrose. Her wings flutter back and forth in agitation of his stubbornness. This causes Ryzen to sigh.

"Fine…let me see it." Ryzen says. Ryoko nods and hands the book to Ryzen. Ryzen holds the book in front of him and it glows as he uses it. Ryoko smiles a bit feeling as if she did her part to help the cause when Ryzen sticks his palm out to Ryoko. She sees a red glow surround her and she feels stronger as if something increased within her. Ryoko hears a voice saying her physical attack stat increased by three.

"What? Why did you…" Ryoko says with a perplexed look on her face. Ryzen slyly looks at Ryoko.

"You came to me asking me if you could group with me and learn how to be a better player. I think you are good enough as you are. The reason I told you that stipulation was to get you to leave me alone. I will not lie. However, you must understand that it is because other players don't need to fight my fight. They can not protect themselves like I can and could end up like the others. Also, if other players came to know about this, then they would make it more difficult to operate. You earned that book; you deserve to be the one to use it, not me."

Ryoko smiles at Ryzen a bit and closes her eyes thinking for a minute. She then looks at Ryzen and extends her hand. Perplexed, he looks at her.

"Let me help you fight that thing. Maybe if we work together, we can kill it! I want to get it back for defeating me like it did too!"

"No. Do I need to repeat myself as to why?"

Ryoko looks at him for a minute, then puts her hands as her side and laughs a little. Ryzen looks at her confused

"What is so funny?"

"Well I remember how you made Balmung look like a fool because he couldn't kill that weird monster and he insisted that he could do so. I'm just doing the same because you can't kill that other monster. I know it's so very rude of me to do so, but it's just too similar."

Ryzen's face turns to one of silent anger briefly, but he then returns to his normal expression.

"Fine. I will give you my member address." Ryzen says as he hands Ryoko a small white crystal. Ryoko smiles and returns the favor handing him a white crystal of her own. Ryzen then gives a defeated smile to Ryoko.

"Now go to sleep. Mumyn Lei!" Ryzen says as he pulls the scroll out casting the spell on Ryoko. Ryoko suddenly feels very drowsy as she slowly lays down unable to resist the sleep.

"You…cheat…" Ryoko says lying down with her eyes closed. As she falls asleep, she makes a mental note to herself.

"_I need to talk to Kite about this as well. He was there since the start of things, maybe he knows how to fight that thing better than Ryzen does."_

With that, Ryoko falls asleep. The sleep is dreamless and relatively normal to her. When she wakes up, she wakes up in reality as she hears her mother calling her for their evening meal. She hugs herself in the real world glad to be in her own body as she shuts her terminal down. She had enough of this game…for today.


End file.
